14. Raising the Bar: Like a Sister's Mission for Maternal Advocacy + Empowered Parenthood

I'm thrilled to introduce you to two incredible moms who're redefining "sisterhood" in so many ways! 

These amazing women, who are actually sisters, founded Like a Sister, which is all about providing top-notch education for parents-to-be and the crucial support they need once their little one arrives. Their journey began right around the start of the 2020 pandemic, aiming to create a hub of resources and sisterly support for new moms.

Drawing from their expertise as a postpartum doula (Tiffany) and a lactation counselor (Candy), along with their roles as parent educators, Candy and Tiffany are on a mission to empower their clients through pregnancy and into parenthood. They want every parent to feel informed and confident as they navigate the myriad decisions that come with raising a family.

As local moms themselves, Candy and Tiffany were a lifeline for me during the early stages of motherhood, offering invaluable support with newborn care and breastfeeding. Today, we're diving into the importance of finding personalized, trustworthy support during pregnancy and beyond, balancing entrepreneurship with motherhood, the overwhelming world of baby products, and much more.

It's clear that our society still has a long way to go in truly supporting mothers and families, but Candy, Tiffany, and I are committed to being part of the solution. We want every mom to know that there's a village out there ready to embrace and support them every step of the way.

In this episode, we cover essential topics that resonate with all mothers, regardless of where they are in their journey.

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Connect with Tiffany and Candy on Instagram and Facebook 

Check out the Like a Sister 3-month membership

Learn more about working with Tiffany and Candy by visiting their website 

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Connect with me on Instagram

Learn more about booking a Biz Therapy session and working together
by visiting my website

Hey, I'm Mariah. I'm a Boy Mama, the very PROUD founder of Made for Mothers, obviously a Podcast Host, and a Marketing and Business Mentor for Moms. I offer Biz Therapy Sessions. Unlike traditional business coaching, this is a space where the whole person is honored, motherhood is celebrated, limiting beliefs are uncovered, messaging is prioritized, niches are defined, roadblocks are clearly identified, systems are taught, marketing is simplified, and the support is a month long.

1 x 90-minute session + 30 days of voxer support

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

I'm Tiffany, I'm Katie and we are two real life sisters. We use our backgrounds trained postpartum doula, certified lactation counselor and new parent educators to support you as you learn how to make the right choices for your family. We're here to provide you with practical tips and a little perspective too.

Speaker 2: 0:26

Hello and welcome to the Made for Mothers podcast, your one stop shop for candid and relatable conversations about motherhood and entrepreneurship. Think of the show as your new mom friend, where we dive into all things marketing, branding, mindset, money, child care and growing your business. While we all navigate our roles as both CEO and mom. I'm your host, mariah Stockman, and I wear a bunch of hats. I'm a boy mama, I'm serving as a marketing mentor for mothers, I'm running a six figure marketing agency and on top of that, I'm the proud founder of the Made for Mothers community. This show is about sharing the real stories and the practical strategies from fellow mother run businesses. So dive in, grab your headphones, reheat that coffee and let's go.

Speaker 2: 1:20

Hello, hello, hello and welcome to another episode of the Made for Mothers podcast. I'm so excited that I have like a sister with me today, kandi and Tiffany, who are real life sisters and who have personally supported me in my new baby season, newborn lactation journey, and who are local moms to where I live and really great, just providers to all the moms that they get to work with, and I am so excited to hear your story and have you here. So welcome. Girls, ladies, moms, girls. Sounds so weird when I say that now, welcome ladies.

Speaker 3: 1:59

Thank you for having us. Thanks for trying to be here.

Speaker 2: 2:03

Yeah. So tell me a little bit, you guys are sisters. Tell me about, like a sister, tell everyone let's look at it, let's get it rolling.

Speaker 1: 2:10

Well, yes, we are sisters. Kandi's the big sister, I'm the younger sister just by four years, but we, you know, had our babies, or we had two of our babies at the same time, which really kick started this business. So Kandi's background is in social media and marketing and I was an elementary school teacher and when I was having my first baby, Kandi was having her third. Yes, and through that whole experience we really really leaned on each other for support. You know we had different struggles and different challenges.

Speaker 1: 2:48

Me as a first time mom, I depended on Kandi so much for her expertise. You know her advice and the way we leaned on each other and the way we navigated throughout those challenges really inspired us to find a way. We weren't quite sure at first how to do this, but really inspired us to find a way to provide that model of support for other parents. We kept looking at each other and being like, oh my gosh, what would we do if we didn't have each other? Motherhood is still so hard and we have so much support in one another. We need to figure out a way to help other moms the way we're helping each other. So I'll let Kandi kind of take it from here, but that led us down a path of sort of pursuing different trainings over the course of the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, which is where things got a little interesting. Yes, definitely.

Speaker 3: 3:40

We finished like our last training and warmed our LLC and we were kicking off like right at the beginning of March. Oh, kandi, we've turned out to actually work out in our favor. But we never could have foreseen that our original plan was to go into people's homes and provide them with baby feeding, support and postpartum support, and of course that couldn't happen. But what did happen was we started getting calls from like friends of friends, around the time of the pandemic and they would say, like I heard that you guys do something to support your parents. You know, my mother-in-law or my cousin was going to come and visit when the baby was born, but now they obviously can't Like. Is there anything that we can do virtually? And Chiffy and I were like sure you know why not.

Speaker 2: 4:31

We're literally not married to any process. We're brand new.

Speaker 3: 4:34

We're stuck inside our homes, right, but like, do you mind if our kids are in the same room? And so we just kind of started it was like a very organic process to start to support people and it was really interesting because, as you recall, like people we were all going through this sort of weird experience together, and at the time a lot of providers therapists were very reticent to do things virtually and then all of a sudden we had to. So it was great in that, like all of these resources that Chiffy and I had always been like, oh my God, I wish I didn't have to leave the house with my newborn to go do X, y or Z, all of a sudden we couldn't leave the house, and so the providers were providing their support virtually. So we did too, and we very quickly were helping parents way outside of the geographic area where we thought we would be, which is Northern Virginia, where we were like born and raised, and it became global. So we had clients everywhere.

Speaker 2: 5:28

Oh, that's incredible. So tell me about your certifications and tell me, are you each, everything or one of you like? Tell me about that. How does that work?

Speaker 1: 5:37

That's a great question. So I'm trained as a postpartum doula through Dona, and then we're both trained as new parent educators through a different organization, kappa, and then Candy is a certified lactation counselor through, remind me, the organization Candy ALPP.

Speaker 3: 5:55

And so what that means is my scope is what you would imagine like if you know when you're in the hospital, when you first have your baby, or you have a lactation counselor who comes to your house. That's the sort of stuff that I provide.

Speaker 2: 6:09

Right, which you provided me virtually through a consult. How did you, I'm curious, how did you each choose those disciplines Like Tiffany, like, do you ever wish you were like an LC? Or Candy, do you ever wish you were a postpartum doula? Or do you guys end up just blurring lines to? I mean, I'm assuming when you, when you work together, you probably know most about each. I'm sure you guys can both do both.

Speaker 1: 6:37

That's a great question.

Speaker 1: 6:40

Yes, I do feel like I've learned so much through Candy's expertise in training, and I'm sure she'd say vice versa.

Speaker 1: 6:46

You know, it's kind of interesting because when we set out to start this business, we really wanted to create something that didn't exist. So it was more about inviting all of these backgrounds and certifications what have you to create something new. So we wanted to support parents with the knowledge that a postpartum doula has, with the high level of expertise that a lactation counselor who would be in the pediatrician's office or a hospital would have. We wanted to have the information in our brains that a new parent educator would have. So there were like personality and interest reasons for each of us to pursue these different trainings. But more was, we just wanted to combine as much information as we could, and Candy was super interested in the lactation side. I was super interested at the time of working in people's homes but also providing that postpartum doula care, and we really just wanted to take that information, that experience, combine it into something new which is like yeah, to create like a one-stop shop in a way of describing it, but to bring what it sounds like.

Speaker 2: 7:58

is your mission to bring the sisterhood to the new mom right?

Speaker 3: 8:04

Yeah, that's exactly right. And to professionalize it, because unfortunately, anybody can call themselves like a postpartum doula. That is not a well-regulated industry and it's like a life coach. It's like a life coach.

Speaker 2: 8:18

Exactly right, and not to disrespect it. No, it was great life coach. No, not to disrespect it. I just think that there's a lot of there's a lot of gray area around certification in probably every industry out there.

Speaker 3: 8:31

Yeah, and so we wanted to.

Speaker 3: 8:33

One of our drivers has always been we want to be really evidence and research based, so it was important to us to get quality training.

Speaker 3: 8:41

That was something that we invested in from the get-go, and we had sort of two different experiences using all of those resources when we had our babies, and so it's been really interesting to kind of, as we work with our clients, we want to present them with a really good data and evidence and they can kind of choose from that, as opposed to getting spun up with everybody's opinions and these different expert point of view. We're not really selling a way of doing things. We're presenting like here's your host of options, how do you know what's right for you, how do you know what feels good? And teaching people how to go through that process Because, as you know, a couple years into motherhood, that decision making and figuring out what's best for your family like that never changes. So learning how to do it well in a way that's true to you, to us, is more important than this is the way to feed your baby or the way to get your baby to sleep, or whatever the case.

Speaker 2: 9:34

The way, the right way. You know, it's so crazy about motherhood. I Just fully it's taken me. How long have we been on this episode? Now Like a good, like seven minutes there's. Yeah, yeah, I don't know, I've like blacked out fully. I, I'm just now almost two years into having a baby, a toddler, and I'm just now remembering Candy. I only was thinking how you gave me the consult, but I'm just now remembering that we did, we did like a class with you. Yeah, no, he was here. This is like so funny to me because that we took a.

Speaker 3: 10:15

Like a you did our baby feeding basics class, which was like where we go through all of the yes Feeding right. Yes, but it was with you.

Speaker 2: 10:22

It was not. It was not like pre-recorded, it was with you. It was like but this is what's so crazy about motherhood is I fully blacked out that we have that experience together until right now? I heard you talking and I was like this is kind of familiar evidence base.

Speaker 2: 10:36

Like I feel like candy's, actually already talked to me about this. Oh my god. She talked to me and my husband, but I was like super pregnant and there is a very big blur of that season pregnancy but the crazy thing is is that I I Absolutely like connect you in my mind to when I was in like breastfeeding Trauma and you showed up and supported me on like drop of a hat, on a call and Helped me like work through some of this, because I was in this feeding, weight gaining trauma with my son. He dropped three pounds within the first three weeks. I learned really quickly that the pediatrician is not is a generalist and is not an expert, is not a specialist when it comes to lactation, and so the pediatricians office was so every at every point in that Journey.

Speaker 2: 11:30

It seemed like their solution was like less and less breastfeeding and more and more formula supplementing, which I am a huge fan of Formula, and it's wow. We are living in a kind of like well, I'm also a product of formula shortage. So in one way, we're living in a country which he's like so amazing that we have that access and then the other side like it, that access totally got taken away and it's just mind-boggling how Fragile the system of formula is and how that just broke so quickly and we were like all like hoarding Formula from the shelves because we couldn't find it and I was getting like shipped in from New York for my best friend anyways. But the pediatricians are an expert and you, you stepped in and I just remember I was triple feeding. I don't know if you remember that, but I was triple feeding and Somehow the pediatrician had me thinking that this was okay, like that. It was like this is a solution. Like, okay, you're gonna do this, say your goals to nurse for a year or two years. Okay, you're just gonna nurse for attachment, right, because at this point we're not nursing for nutrition at all, and he made that very, very clear to me. We're nursing for attachment and for comfort and for bonding and for, like you know, teething and blah, blah, blah, right, and then we're pumping to keep the supply up for the nursing, but really we're formula feeding. And it was just.

Speaker 2: 12:57

I just remember coming to you and being like what WTF? Like what is going on? I can't remember anything else that came from that, but I just remember. I remember how I felt with you, like I remember I felt after I felt very empowered and then I think I got in with a lactation consultant at I Know, but like, really, I got in there really quickly and then we solved some things. No, sorry, is this fun for our listeners? Yet no, I went and made an appointment to make sure you didn't have a lip tie, and I think that came from you. I think it was like, okay, maybe you should go see a specialist and let's get, let's get some, let's get like a Process, and then you help.

Speaker 3: 13:33

That's what we do with our clients is like let's make a plan because you and I remember you and I talking about this is like the pediatrician is not your doctor, right, and so all of the unintended consequences of what is triple feeding doing to my mental health? What is it doing to me physically? Like is it even what I want to do? Moving forward, who is really there? Like you don't go to your OB or your midwife really to talk about that.

Speaker 2: 13:57

I mean especially because I hate them. Oh yeah, I like I mentioned it in probably every episode how traumatic my birth was and it was like all their fault. Anyways, keep going.

Speaker 3: 14:06

Yeah, so. So, yes, we maybe you don't have somebody you trust and they're not gonna be the experts in this and your pediatricians looking out for Henry, like looking out for the baby, and there's very in his weight and his weight right, and you are sort of at the bottom of the list, unless you find somebody just to support you and say like, okay, let's like take it all down a notch, let's make a plan, let's try these things, and if our planet doesn't work out, what's our plan be gonna be? Because I remember with you that bonding was really, really of primary importance to you right.

Speaker 3: 14:38

It is for all of us, and you really wanted the experience and you had that going your mind and we and actually Tiffany is the one who sort of taught Me this is like it's cool to have a goal, but we have to be flexible in how we get there right. So can we have that bonding, can we have that connection with our baby in a variety of different ways? Absolutely, really. Where do you go to learn that, like the class at the hospital typically doesn't teach you how to pump and use formula and Combo feed, which we know 85% of parents do in the first year when you go to learn and then, when there's problems, who's gonna help you with that? And that's what I think when Tiffany said we were creating something totally new. That's what we need. It's a thing we need it.

Speaker 2: 15:17

I think you helped me with the shield too, with the nipple shield. That was it around, like the science hate that shield. But love to hate that shield. Oh my gosh. I'll never forget just feeling like where's the shield? Where's the shield? It's like a little thin, I mean, it's so easy to lose, it's clear, it's small, it's oh my gosh.

Speaker 1: 15:36

Yes, I was a huge shield user as well, and I was just remembering and laughing how I was finding them for like months and months after I was no longer using them.

Speaker 2: 15:45

I love it's. Thank you for bringing me back to that, like both of you. Thank you for bringing back to that conversation. It's crazy how I I mean, but really, though, think about it, I don't really remember the details because I'm so far out of it and so much Life has happened and we've been through so many other phases. We've been through hiring a sleep coach and sleep training in this and you know he's climbing out of the crib, and then the solid we I'm reading, oh crap, potty training. You know what I mean. So like to think back of him being like three or four weeks old and and that those feelings like Anyways, the point being is, I don't, I can't remember concretely because of the where I was, but I remember how I felt and I think that that is like the most beautiful, probably, feedback that you can get.

Speaker 2: 16:32

Really, I mean, I felt empowered and I felt heard and I felt taken care of and I felt really seen, and then, you know, things progressively got better. Do you guys ever watch the office space Movie? Do you ever see that movie? Remember when they take the bat and they with the printer? I Literally sometimes think about that when we're done having babies with my pump, like I have. I have Fantasy of like just destroying the bomb. I feel like maybe you two will be the only people who really understand.

Speaker 3: 17:08

You can relate and what you just said is why so many of our clients either are repeat clients or maybe they didn't have a great experience with their first. Should they come back and now that we both have multiple kids, really get it, because you do block it out, but you know, you've done it before, you don't remember, but you do have a little different confidence the second and third time or whatever. So that's sort of been. What we've been talking about lately is how do we help our clients get that repeat parent confidence, but with their first baby?

Speaker 2: 17:33

Oh, I love that Someone once told my husband and I that were third baby parents to our first baby. I don't know how they said it. They're like you guys are third child parents here because we let him just like scale the fence and Kind of got feral energy. But we are into, we're into like safe risk-taking and we're very like chill. But I feel like if people could have seen us in those first months, like when he wasn't eating and because he wasn't eating he wasn't sleeping. Oh well, don't worry, we got all the non-chill versions of how Okay, so you guys have thought right, five kids between you now fast forward. So how do you make?

Speaker 2: 18:12

You know the listeners of this podcast are typically moms who run businesses or want to run a business, or maybe they're thinking about Leaving corporate structures that don't you know, huh Like really tend to Mothers needs. Maybe they went back to a corporate job they loved and then they realized, wow, I have to nurse and feed and be with my baby and this is not conducive. How do you make motherhood and running a business? And I know you know you guys have told me that one of you type A and one of you type B, which is like whatever wrong spectrum somewhere of that. But how do you make that work with wanting to be the types of moms you want to be and then wanting to have, like, big goals and dreams and vision and grow, grow, while also maintaining, you know, motherhood, no pressure.

Speaker 1: 18:58

No, I mean, it's such a good question. It's something we talk about constantly and check in with each other about constantly. I think, for us, it's kind of two different things. So one, we are really, really creative with our time and how we use it and when we get things done. I mean just an example like recording this podcast today. I'll be completely honest with you. We have a couple of our kids are at preschool right now. A couple of our kids are attending to themselves right now. I have our parents are actually at my house with my one and a half year old downstairs right now.

Speaker 1: 19:28

Like, we have a lot of support, but we also have to get creative when we get things done, how we get things done. The biggest thing for us, though and we are super fortunate we have one another, a lot of moms that we've worked with, or moms that maybe, listening to this podcast, may not be in the same situation with us, where you're running your own business, but with your best friend and sister, and we get that. That's very different, but we've really taken a lot of time we know we're on year four of our business now to really reprioritize how we work with clients, and I think it's taken a lot of I wouldn't say trial and error, because it necessarily hasn't gone wrong, but we've learned through growing pains and different experiences how can we best support our clients while still feeling fulfilled and still growing our business. So one example that we're currently working with and we're super excited about is we're launching this new model of our business where we're making our classes on demand so people can take our courses, learn from us, on their own time, but also we're rolling out this membership plan where people have access to basically join and have access to our classes that are on demand but also have access to us. We're going to have monthly live Q&A calls, ways to access our resources, access us on a more broader scope, because running our business in the past we were doing all these one-on-one consultation calls that were amazing but also really, really time consuming and, as mothers like you said, five kids between us were super busy.

Speaker 1: 21:05

We're trying to build this business. A lot of times we were so limited in how many parents we could work with and how many clients we could reach, because we don't have all the time in the world, no one does and it was getting more and more stressful and harder to manage. So we really had to get creative and it took a while to get here, but we're so excited we're finally here. Where we can. We just had to shift our business and shift our mindset a little bit and say, like you know, how can we have everybody access us and access more clients while we're still giving that quality chair?

Speaker 2: 21:35

100%. It's so smart, tiffany. I literally just hired an OBM slash VA, online business manager VA on Monday to build out our membership for Made From Others. And so I'm like sitting here like yes, yes, yes, I used to have hundreds of coaching clients before. I mean, I used to only talk about work with me, work with me, work with me, work with me. Now everything's just like podcasts and meetups and Made From Others, because I just don't have the bandwidth. But also it's really hard what you're talking about. When we talk about it, it sounds very simple. It's not, I am sure. Like what membership platform did you choose? Who built it, what resources, how much? It's so much work on the back end to build, and I'm so jealous and stoked for both of you that you have each other to do it together and that we have like sounding boards. I just hired this OBM to help me build this out because I'm so limited in my time and my capacity, for sure, but I love this and it's so smart.

Speaker 2: 22:35

And it doesn't necessarily mean that you can't work one on one. It just means that when you are in a busy season right, you can push the membership more and put more focus there, and when you have time and spaciousness. You know, unfortunately I don't know if you guys know this, but kids get older and I'm sad because Henry looks like a teenager to me these days. But you know, there's going to be different seasons of life where maybe Candy can do more one-on-ones or maybe Tiffany can do more, or maybe one-on-ones or what makes you more excited. You know like it's just interesting to watch where our A are energy and where our joy and where our impact kind of all like ebb and flow and curve, because think about how much, think about all the different things you guys have done just since 2019. I mean it's crazy to think like where will you be in 2027, you know? So I don't know. What do you think, candy? Are you excited?

Speaker 3: 23:30

about that. Yeah, we're really excited and we have to go. We can meet our clients where they are right, and what our clients are looking for changes, right. It's very different than it was in 2020. And so, as our we're kind of like growing up with our clients as well, and so it's important to kind of give them what they want. And I think I mentioned earlier like our clients are sort of very goal-oriented. They do a lot of research. Maybe a little bit of perfectionists, which Tiffany and I both are maybe like recovering, and that looks different for both of us, but we can really relate to that. And so for some of our perfectionist clients, that looks like doing a ton of research, reading all of the things or some of them. It looks like I'm going to kind of put my head in the sand because I'm getting so overwhelmed. If I can't do it perfectly, I'm not going to do it at all.

Speaker 2: 24:18

I think it's smart because also think about it. If you know that that's your ideal client and that's the client that's attracted to work for you, you know that they're already buying, like Carrie's courses. You know they're already buying taking Cara Baby's courses. You know that they're already in memberships. But you know if they are those types of consumers slash like people just by nature then why not put yourself in that space to have offerings that they're already buying over here, because they're not going to stop buying?

Speaker 2: 24:51

We are the I was going to say, I am those people and I will do all of it, I will get them all. I have them all. I think I have all of them and I would still be wanting to be a part of yours because it offers something different and there is for me at least, there is a local component, but now your reach is national and it's not our global, excuse me and it's not limited to a location, but you're going to offer something that's very different, which is hi, we have experts with, like, there's a live component to it, which I think those other pieces don't have. That.

Speaker 3: 25:27

You know I'm happy and, mariah, if you my hands off For your class, like we Do, I remember my class. No, I'm saying like, yes, as you think about your class, all the class that we did together, there was a component of it that was very specializing to you. We do a lot of intake, take a lot of information at the beginning, right, and so, you know, talk about, like your priorities, right. Just like we tell our clients, we had to think about what is most important to us, and what was most important to us on every level was getting really customized support you need to your family situation.

Speaker 3: 26:04

So when Tiffany is working with clients who have to go right back to work, that's different than ones that are going to have an extended, you know, maternity, paternity leave, right. So we're always adjusting. And so we realized that about 80% of the information we were giving in those feeding classes, as an example, was the same information, because it was like we're going to put together stuff that you can't really find anywhere else, so we were giving that over and over, and then there was that other 20% that's customized. So now what we can do is like everybody can go through this evergreen class and then when we chat one-on-one, we're talking about the things that are most specific to your situation, whether that's your postpartum plan, your feeding plan, whatever. Wow.

Speaker 2: 26:43

I love that. I mean I have a husband who travels 150 days of the year, so I have a very unique situation, you know what I mean. I have a very unique situation Like they lose home for the first six weeks, but then it's like, oh my gosh, guess what? I'm still postpartum seven week, eight week, nine week, ten week, you know. And so I'm just thinking, like my own personal journey and how much support, just how much support is needed.

Speaker 2: 27:05

And something that I love that you guys have been recently talking about is you've been talking about we have a hyper focus on the stuff. Right, we talk about the stuff and how we need the stuff, but that's not true. That's not the case and that maybe you too wish the conversations, the narratives maybe would shift away from. Can we stop talking about the latest and greatest? I mean not to like put a timestamp on this podcast so it can be more evergreen, but this whole kite baby I just posted about just came out. So it's like you know everyone loves the sleep sack, sleep sack.

Speaker 2: 27:39

It's like, but then, do we love those sleep sacks right now? I don't know. So you know it's an issue. You know it's an issue when it comes to new moms, even second time moms, third time moms, it's like, oh gosh, I had a baby such a long time ago. What do I need? You know what? Should I make a registry for my? You know, is it weird to make a registry for my third kid? It's like, yeah, get him a postpartum doula. You know, like, what's your take on that? Because I love that you've been having these conversations in a, you know, very like natural way.

Speaker 1: 28:10

Well, I think you hit the nail on the head. We're sold so much stuff and the idea of meeting stuff. I really think that what we've seen over and over and over again with our clients is that they don't need the stuff, they need the support. And sometimes it's hard to find that balance. I think there is a piece to it about being prepared and especially, like we said, the type of clients we attract. We want to prep, we want to nest, we want to have all the things, but we truly believe and I think it's because we are a values driven company that just people don't need don't need more stuff to parent. Well, they need more support. Like you said, register for that postpartum doula, register for that support. And parents need the support that we both provide. They need the systemic support for all families that is so lacking, I think, through our education that we provide.

Speaker 1: 29:03

Whether it's our new parent class 10 seats, being a confident new parent, like talking about the confidence you need, the way to make decisions as a new parent.

Speaker 1: 29:12

That's the kind of thing you should be practicing and discussing with your partner and preparing for before your baby comes or whether it's truly sitting down and creating a postpartum plan and realizing like, oh okay, I don't need to be ordering 10 more swaddles. I need to be talking about how we're going to make sure everybody in the family is fed the first two months of the baby's here. Really, just like bringing our clients down a couple of notches and be like, okay, okay, let's just take a second and think through the practical. We are not introducing anything really crazy or expensive or high effort. We are really bringing our clients back down to earth a little bit and saying, okay, don't worry about all the stuff. Think about how you are going to maintain your mental health, take care of yourself, feed yourself, feed your baby, stay connected to those around you to build your village, curate your village, express boundaries to your support system.

Speaker 2: 30:09

Those are the things that you need to be doing to prepare for it, yeah, and I just feel like we just need to be having more conversations about, like, how is mom going to heal? You know, like how is mom going to heal and what does that look like for her, because we're preparing for this after this after moment, right, this monumental after moment and that moment being birth. The hard part is is you just don't know what that birth is going to be. You don't know. You don't know if it's going to be fast and furious. You don't know if it's going to be a C-section. You don't know if it's going to be long, long long. You don't know if it's going to be traumatic. You don't know. You don't know if you're going to be admitted longer. You don't know what's going to happen with your placenta. There's just so many things not to be like fear-based, but there's different scenarios that lead to different types of healing and I think, trying to have conversations around what is that? What is your like postpartum feel like for you, versus what are all these things you need?

Speaker 2: 31:13

Because my like, my personal experience is all those things just stressed me out. There was just too much. It's just too much stuff. I mean, I joke about the pump, but the pump is probably like the most stressful piece of equipment that any new mom could have in a house and like, thank goodness I had a partner who like washed all the pieces every day and like sanitize things, but it's like you can barely walk and I was saying you have to pump it, it's just anyways. So I was just as you were talking. I was like, yeah, like it just be so great if we all just talked about like sits, baths and like you know like and like in food and nutrition and you know having someone like drop off like you know delicious plate of enchiladas that like I could eat. I don't know, it's just, it's just coming back into that space you know of like gosh, the stuff is so stressful. It's also stressful because you're you're thinking you need it, like you're thinking more and more and more. It's just wild.

Speaker 3: 32:10

Yeah, and it's you know, to think sort of even a little more deeply about it. I think we need to question why we're constantly being so stuff and at least in America and our culture, we believe that it's a way to sort of paper over the fact that we don't have any social support, right? So let's kind of distract everybody over here from the fact that they don't have paid leave. We'll just tell them that the real problem is they need X, y or Z, and because we're an inclusive company, our clients build their families all different ways, right? So whether that's through adoption, ivf, you know a lot of things that often are very, very expensive ways to grow your family.

Speaker 2: 32:45

Oh, yeah, definitely.

Speaker 3: 32:46

And you may not have the money to accept those things. You may not have the resources for a variety of different reasons, and so we really believe that, like it's wonderful to help the individual families, we help. We love that. That drives us. But unless we as business owners are addressing the more systemic problems, we are kind of part of the problem as well. So we include some advocacy work and charitable work as part of our business model, because we are working in a really broken system and so helping our clients unpack maybe what's actually going to help them versus, like all these messages they're getting, is important really to us.

Speaker 2: 33:28

I mean, the Kite Sleep Sack is like $70, $60. A million dollar company ran by a mom who makes money off of moms, new moms, babies. And then you have this mom who adopts a baby after three field rounds of IVF, right, who adopts a baby who hasn't been at a company ran by a mom for more than a year, so it doesn't have paid family leave, and then she adopts a baby. That baby ends up in the NICU and then she has two weeks and then she gets fired. And there's all the comments out there, right, are all very heavily directed towards the CEO, right, and I think that that's in kite and like boycotting kite, right, and this is not an episode about kite, even though it is right. But don't you think and I don't know if you agree but don't you think that that's? It's such a hopefully it's not a missed opportunity, but it might be a missed opportunity for people to really put that, like what's really the rage, what's really the outcry, what's really the un? Where is that feeling of unjust coming from inside? I don't think it's the CEO, like, yes, of course, what she did was totally inappropriate, but only because people are seeing it and only because it's been put on the news and only because it's been.

Speaker 2: 34:50

There's so much press around it. What is happening every single day in corporations across the country that no one's seeing? This is not uncommon. When we get to the root of it, it's like what are we really supposed to be advocating for? Is it for the dismantling of kite? No, it's for the dismantling of these systems that are so not rooted in supporting a mom and supporting a family and they're very male dominated and they're very profit-first. And I don't know what you guys think about all that, but it's like a beautiful moment of news that shines a light on the hardships of mothers and working moms, and I feel like I wish it was all being channeled towards something really specific and tangible that could create real change, and I think that's where people start to feel a little lost. You know of like, how do we change this?

Speaker 3: 35:49

I mean, in your view, what would that be Like? I agree with you for sure, I think Kibi does too Like. What does that look like for us as parents?

Speaker 2: 35:58

For me personally in my life, how I wanna create that change is teaching moms how to work for themselves. That's my full mission. I've made from others is I work in systems that don't work for me and my family, and corporate life does not work for me and my family, and I know that, and I have the skill set to go out and create something for myself, and I wish that every mom knew that they could, if they have any idea that that could be a business and they could work for themselves. And I think we have all this miss messaging around oh, but what about the insurance and what about our benefits? And some of that is true, for sure, for sure, for sure. But the other part of it is like wishing that there was legislation and wishing that there was actual, real advocacy. I don't know what it is, but I just know that this is a news cycle and news cycles fade. You know, and I know in three weeks, four weeks, people are gonna be buying kite again, maybe not. They're definitely gonna take a hit from a profit perspective and maybe that CEO will be fired as like a public display of whatever. But it is just a news cycle and until we have another news cycle. I mean it's funny because, also, this whole thing about the Barbie movie just came out this exact same week. There's just so much that's wrong. There's so much that's wrong and I don't know where to channel it.

Speaker 2: 37:18

And I'm doing my part by helping moms work for themselves so that they could create a system within their family that supports motherhood and livelihood simultaneously. And I don't care if you like sell doTERRA oils or if you are consulting the White House, I don't care. I don't care what you're doing as a business. I just want every mom who wants that to have the right training and access and Village is what I call it to be supported and to have higher levels of education around how to do it. But I don't know. I would love to hear what you guys think, as this took a whole pivot. But I love it because it is like this is happening, this is life, this is this week like how could you not have thoughts on it? You know, I mean, I think too.

Speaker 1: 38:06

I don't have to answer the question, the question, but conversations that we end up having with our own clients all the time. Because we do it like we said, we do attract a certain type of client and more often than not we are. I mean, we put our values, our beliefs out there.

Speaker 2: 38:21

We are yeah, I love that You're marching, you're doing I mean I love it, I love it, you're there.

Speaker 1: 38:27

And you know, we attract like-minded clients, maybe clients that are looking for someone who share similar beliefs, and I mean that's how we shop, that's how we personally are as consumers I mean, I've learned a lot from Kandy this way but with our own faith, it's like we are really, really mindful about the companies we support, the companies, the businesses that we share about and support, even on social media, I mean we're really picky because we truly, truly want to highlight other business owners or other companies that we support. We can stand behind, and that's hard to do. So the conversation that we have with a lot of our clients is, you know, just being really mindful, of course, of where you spend your money, where you focus your attention, but even taking a step back, like what are your own personal values, what's important to you as a parent, as a family? We all know that our views on the world change once we become parents. We look at things through different lens and even just starting to have those conversations with our own partners or, you know, having our clients have those conversations with their partners or support people, deciding what's important to you and where you want to spend your money and what you support that conversation before you have a child or when you're first having a child, is way more important than going to Bye Bye Baby and spending two hours building your registry.

Speaker 1: 39:59

So what are the small steps? And if it can feel really intimidating, right, like it can feel really intimidating, what? Disventilating an entire system? Yeah, you know, right, well, tapped for a Thursday. No, and it is overwhelming and intimidating and scary and kind of embarrassing, almost like when you don't know where to start, right.

Speaker 1: 40:20

When you don't know where to start.

Speaker 3: 40:21

Yeah, yeah, and you listened to the formula shorted. The Washington Post has said a really interesting article about how that has come up several times in the last few decades and why it keeps coming up and one of the issues is that the population at most effects, which is parents and young kids. We don't really have the bandwidth to go and fight.

Speaker 3: 40:41

And sort of when kids get older, we don't need formula anymore and we move on to the next thing and then the next round of parents coming up behind us feels with the formula shorted and there's never that systemic change. And it's unfortunate because, as the sort of the busiest, the busiest time of our lives, we have to also be advocating to keep like our basic rights, to gain our rights. We haven't advertised it widely, but to a like a sister, we're actually teaching a workshop right now for parents who want to get more engaged in civic and community and political oh cool, and do it in a way that makes sense with having little kids. And it was so interesting because the first round of people that did sign up for it all have, like, the little little babies, and Tiffany said it best.

Speaker 3: 41:27

Something happens when you become a parent and you're like, oh, this is not the world, but I think I want to be raising my kids in, and you kind of start to find your voice and there are ways to be engaged and to be active that don't take a lot of time, that don't take a lot of even knowledge. You can bring your kids along for that and it's unfortunate that we have to do that, but that's where we live. So if we want to change these systems, we have to be loud and proud about our values, like Tiffany said, like we have to be careful where we spend our money. But to your point, just talking about it, like talking about it at daycare drop off or you know, like in those circles where we do have some influence, is really important and someone has to be really brave to share that first. But we have done it and we know that when you start this conversation, other parents will type up and be like you know what actually was wondering about that too, but somebody has to go first.

Speaker 2: 42:19

Somebody has to go first, for sure. And I mean I hear what you're saying. I mean it's really sad that a new mom on a lifeboat has to go out there and advocate. It's like if a mom needs to go out and advocate for mom, it's like the mom, the mom as a whole, is like struggling just to stay afloat. On so many levels.

Speaker 2: 42:36

It's like, of course, of course, this just gets pushed to the bottom of you know, any politicians, you know to do list right, and we see that, we see that across many systems in society, just how mothers are not, you know, respected in the way that they should be, and that even just you know how many hours of like unpaid work right, or our moms pouring into, to raising families, I just I find the whole, I find the whole conversation so interesting because people are mad, because they care for sure, and I think that that feeling of needing to like, wow, I'm gonna have to really advocate starts in your, in your pregnancy, when you're going to your doctor and getting checked and things are not feeling like there's a, there's a disconnect, I think, for a lot of moms about how, how traditional care feels. And then you go and maybe you have a hospital birth and you see, oh, wow, there's even more situations where I need to advocate for myself. And then you have this baby and they're going to the pediatrician like, wow, I really have to advocate for him or her. And so I think something that comes up on this podcast, a lot, is like yeah, like the baby's born and the mother's voice is also born with that baby, and it is something that I know it's going to be a muscle in me advocating for Henry, you know, for his whole life, like we don't want traditional school systems. We don't want.

Speaker 2: 44:13

There's so many things. There's so many things. I'm not anti Vax, I just don't want to give him 12 vaccines in one day when he's like six weeks old, seven weeks old, you know, and wait until you're teaching them, because Chiff and I are deep in us now teaching them to the advocate for themselves.

Speaker 3: 44:30

But you're going to be so glad with Henry that you did it, because you don't realize it, but your model is playing for him what it means to be like speaking up for your values, to be seeing your let's say, your health care providers as your partners, right, and so like what a privilege the three of us have because we've gone through it right.

Speaker 3: 44:49

We're business owners. Now we just need our care providers, and so we really believe that, like all of us were in the position to teach other people how to do this. But that's why Tiffany said we're like really picky, because when you're a new parent, you're so vulnerable and we believe you should be working with people who share your values and who are advocating for you, even when you're not in the room or directly working with them, and so you're absolutely right. By doing it now, it is a muscle and you will grow up thinking that's just really like. This is what we do. Our family has these values. We believe in asking questions, we believe in standing up for ourselves and for other people who can't stand up for themselves, so you should be really proud of yourself.

Speaker 2: 45:29

Thank you. I mean, unfortunately, it's come out through like, oh yeah, my child's like shrinking in my arms and it's not where you know. I mean, unfortunately, or unfortunately, it's like, oh, my child shrink in my arms. Okay, we need formula. Now. There's a formula on the shelves. Okay, now I'm like having to like get it fed.

Speaker 2: 45:42

I mean, it's like pandemic pregnancy formula, shortage weight issue, covid vaccine issues, like you know, just like not the code vaccine being an issue, just that. That's like this is what we're talking about. It's like I didn't I, you know talk about not having a village. No, prenatal yoga. No, no new mom groups classes, because I'm a, I have a 2022 baby, you know. So none of that exists.

Speaker 2: 46:04

So I'm just like I can't express to you like how grateful I am that you to exist in the world and that this is the work that you're doing and that this is what you're pushing forward and this is what you believe in, and I hope your membership it sounds like it might, but I hope your membership includes some sort of like vetted list of hey, these are great companies. You know what I was going to say, though you know what it is kind of cool about the kite, and I don't know if you guys have looked at it, but the Marissa Hughes is the mom and if you go to her go fund me and you look at the contributions, it's very interesting and I don't know if it's.

Speaker 3: 46:39

I don't know. Oh, I gotta go check out. We have been talking about this, if you like, since it happened, so I don't think either one of us has thought to do that.

Speaker 2: 46:46

Have you Well first of all, carrie Walker put donated $5,000 to her. Go fund me, so thank you, because you know she was a NICU nurse, okay, and she's a huge baby supporter. Yes, yes to that, but you should see all the companies that have donated and their and words, and like what it is, and sure, like. Of course, the devil's advocate in me is like is it a PR stunt? Is it real? I'm hoping it's real, but it is very. It's just fascinating to see when people's values, let alone companies values, are like where the rubber meets the road, like put your money where your mouth is, and it's just a. That's a very interesting sort of case study sample of of what else like right now. So, all that to say, I'm hoping your membership includes some sort of vetted list of like these are some like really great companies with values that we share, and so if you do have to go down the stuff route because, okay, come on, babies require, they do require stuff. The thing about the stuff, though, is that all the stuff is easily accessible, like you can just order it. Like you can order it when you need it.

Speaker 2: 47:50

Like someone told me that my baby can't have a pacifier like that. Someone told me that. So I just believed it and I got on this like weird, weird hill to die on right. I'm like not giving my brand new baby a pacifier. And then I was in the then my baby was born and I remember my postpartum nurse told me like, oh, your baby can't have a pacifier for six weeks. And I was like, yep, got it. Okay, day one, day one we come home, I freaking door dashed a pacifier from Walgreens, one pacifier. I mean that pass for me like $35. And as soon as Henry got that pacifier it was like, and he's not a pacifier kid, he's never been a pacifier kid. I mean, he dropped it like you know he's. He's a thumb sucker, god forbid, but he's not a pacifier. Anyways, I know my husband's always like the dental bill and I'm like you you you can go figure out how to get that thumb out of his mouth, like that's you Like I will just gladly give him braces. I'll take the problem tomorrow's problem, not today's problem, but anyways, I do hope it.

Speaker 2: 48:54

I do hope that membership includes, like this you know these lists and vetted and how people can be more conscious consumers, because I do think that that's something that comes very clearly out. It comes through your messaging and your brand, and if that's your goal, that's the kind of brand that you have the goal of putting out into the world. I will say, as a consumer of your content, like you're nailing it, like I feel like everything that you're hoping to to communicate in terms of being a value based brand, like I very much feel that from like a sister, and it's not going to be for everyone, but you know what there's? There's so many people that it's for and like people who it's for. That's, that's your people. And now you get to. You know, reach them from wherever they are, which I think is awesome. So where can people find you? How can they? When does that launch? What you can see is them very excitedly looking at each other. I'm going to answer the question just to narrate the silence.

Speaker 3: 49:48

Yes, we are launching in the next couple of weeks and it's going to be a couple of things. It's going to be on-demand classes which you can buy on their own. That and our postpartum planning toolkit are a good way to get a taste for working with us. But if you're going to get more than one thing, then the membership is a much better deal, quite frankly, and we're selling it in trimesters. You buy it for three months at a time and so we're going to have, starting in February, really a theme every month. So some months it's going to be mental health, some months it's going to be division of labor within your own household. That will be what everything centers around. So you'll have access to our full library, all of our recorded courses and then the live support, of course. Then if you want the one-on-one support after your baby arrives, we offer that too.

Speaker 3: 50:35

So at Like a Sister Support, we're the most active on Instagram and we have Facebook, likeassistorsupportcom, where you can check out all of our offerings. We do share tons of educational information content for free. Like you said, you'll get a good taste for what it's like to work with us just by checking us out on social. So we will be taking everybody along for the ride. Our clients love to see the behind the scenes of our business and we are like that too with the people we support. So we're sharing kind of in real time, like as we get closer to this launch. So I don't know, when is this podcast coming out? It might be launched by the time.

Speaker 2: 51:12

Oh, it'll be launched this podcast. I'm a batch worker. I mean this is like.

Speaker 2: 51:17

This one. This will be out in like March or something, probably, but, yeah, okay. So then we're launched. We're launched, guys. The future is bright. I love that.

Speaker 2: 51:29

I just appreciate you both so much. Thank you so much for coming on and just creating these conversations in this space that so many of us really need to have, and if it encourages anyone out there to whether become more of an advocate or think about their own advocacy or think about their own consumerism or think about their own birth or think about how they want their next baby to be different. I mean, there's so many topics recovered today, but I feel like it all just creates the support system around a mother, like in so many different ways, and I think that that's a really beautiful, Because I don't think you can do one without the other. I don't think you can say, like I'm a postpartum doula without being an advocate, Like I just feel like you have to have. All of these conversations are so important. So I appreciate both of you. Thanks for it. Thank you so much. You guys are so welcome.

Speaker 2: 52:21

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Made for Mothers podcast. Give, like a sister, a follow. I will link everything in the show notes. Maybe we can even get a cool list of you know baby companies. They really love links there to somewhere. I'll link their membership, I'll link all of it. It's all going to be linked, Link, link, link.

Speaker 2: 52:41

Have a great day, ladies, and we will talk to you soon. Yay, you just finished another episode of the Made for Mothers podcast. As always, you can find more details about today's show in the show notes and be sure to give us a review. Subscribe so you don't miss a chance to grow your biz from fellow moms. Are you wanting more one-on-one support, or are you looking to learn how to market your business in a way so you can spend more time with your family and less time stressing about what to do next? Then follow along on Instagram at mariahsdocman, or book a one-on-one biz therapy session with yours truly, and let's find that work mom-ahood harmony we all deserve. Until next time. This is your host, Mariah Stockman, and thank you so much for tuning in.