Shows
Miracle Working MumsFirst anniversary special!In this first anniversary episode of the Miracle Working Mums podcast I reflect on the 31 episodes I have presented so far and highlight some of the key themes and lessons learned. These themes include the resilience of working mums, the importance of support and understanding in the workplace, overcoming organisational and societal barriers, the need for representation and leadership, creating supportive networks and communities, and redefining fatherhood.
I am going to take a little break from recording while I reflect and think about what season two will sound like. If you have any ideas or would like t...
2024-06-1210 minMiracle Working MumsE24 featuring Emily Dent: you can have it all, but only if you can live with the guilt.Emily Dent, a partner in the innovation and transformation consultancy &Us, shares her journey of balancing career and family. She emphasizes the importance of building a supportive community and acknowledges the challenges faced by women in male-dominated industries. Emily discusses the pressure to have it all and the need to redefine societal expectations. She also highlights the physical and hormonal toll of pregnancy and the lack of understanding and support in the workplace. Emily shares her experience of transitioning to freelance work and eventually becoming a partner in her consultancy. The conversation covers topics such as socialization of children...
2024-04-231h 02Miracle Working MumsE30 featuring Jessy Conflon: the cost of pregnancy for gay women and what pregnancy costs a woman (incl PND)In this conversation, I talk to Jesse Conflon, co-founder at Yay Startup Marketing, about her journey as a parent and entrepreneur. We discuss topics such as career expectations, challenges faced by the LGBTQIA+ community in parenthood, fertility treatment, and work-life balance. Jesse shares her experiences of running her own business while planning for parenthood and the importance of having a supportive partner. We also explore the division of labour in same-sex couples and the benefits of proactive and equitable parenting. In this conversation, Jessy shares her experience with postpartum depression and how she realized what was happening. She discusses the...
2024-03-2947 minMiracle Working MumsE29 featuring Kelli Fairbrother: West Point, Harvard, McKinsey, Motherhood, Tech FounderIn this episode I talk to tech founder and CEO of XigXag, Kelli Fairbrother. Kelli is a force of nature; her trailblazing personality, passion and intelligence just burst out of this episode and it was really fun to record. Kelli shares her journey from her ambitions as a young adult to her experiences in the army and at McKinsey. She discusses the challenges and expectations of motherhood and the decision to leave her corporate job to found her own tech business. Kelly also introduces XigXag, an audiobook platform that aims to make books more accessible with offers a unique...
2024-03-1756 minMiracle Working MumsE28 featuring Helen Cammack: failing to plan is planning to failIn this episode Helen Cammack shares her fascinating story, which synthesises her Oxford PPE intelligence, corporate experience and adoption experience to create the Preparental financial modelling tool. Its one of those things that, when you hear about it you can't believe it doesn't already exist.
https://www.preparental.com/
Takeaways
Having open and honest conversations with your partner about your desires and concerns regarding parenthood is crucial in making a decision.
Planning and preparation can help alleviate anxieties and fears about becoming a parent.
There is a lack of resources and support for individuals and couples who are considering parenthood, pa...
2024-03-041h 06Miracle Working MumsE27 featuring Lucy Heavens: is there a right time to have kids?In this episode of the Miracle Working Mums podcast I chat to Lucy Heavens about whether there is ever a 'right time' to have kids and the differences she experienced of being a teen mum versus a mum a second time twelve years later. Lucy is VP of Marketing at Salv and a mother of two. She discusses the support she received from a young mums group and the importance of inclusion. Lucy also talks about her career progression and the pressure she felt to conform to societal expectations. She reflects on the struggles and pressure she experienced with her...
2024-02-1948 minMiracle Working MumsE26 featuring Helena Rivers: Making a difference in a male-dominated sectorHelena Rivers, Net Zero Leader at AECOM for Europe and India, discusses her career as an engineer and the challenges of balancing work and family life. She shares her experiences of being a woman in a male-dominated industry and the barriers women face in engineering. Helena also talks about the importance of support and attitudes in the workplace, as well as the impact of career choices on family life. She emphasizes the need for patience and allyship in creating a more inclusive and supportive environment for women in engineering.
Women in engineering face barriers and biases in a male-dominated industry.
...
2024-02-0245 minMiracle Working MumsE25 featuring Nicky Lowe: Finding Balance and Equity at Home and at Work Following Adrenal FatigueNicky Lowe, an executive coach and founder of Luminate Group and Wisdom for Working Mums, shares her journey of balancing career and motherhood. She discusses her early career expectations and the challenges she faced in the corporate world. Nicky also talks about the lack of role models and support for working mothers in her industry. She shares her experience of dealing with adrenal fatigue and how it led her to prioritize her health and well-being. Nicky emphasizes the importance of mindset and self-care in navigating the challenges of motherhood and career. The conversation explores the challenges and opportunities for working...
2024-01-1959 minMiracle Working MumsE23 featuring Tony Darwall: Dads are Miracle Workers too!In this episode, Tony Darwall, a compliance consultant and Head of London Markets at ICS, shares his experience as a father and how he balances his career and family life. He discusses his career progression in the insurance industry and how he unexpectedly became a dad at the age of 30. Tony emphasizes the importance of being involved in parenting and breaking down gender stereotypes (Tony was the OG TW&T). He also talks about the challenges and rewards of being a blended family and the changing dynamics as his children grow older. Tony believes that organizations should recognize dads...
2024-01-0542 minMiracle Working MumsE22 featuring Fiona H: Discovering that your children often need you more the older they getIn this conversation, Fiona, a Managing Director and Independent Non-Executive Director, discusses her experience as a working mother. She shares insights into her career path, the importance of role models, and the challenges of balancing work and family life. Fiona also reflects on attitudes towards pregnant women in the workplace and the changing role of fathers. She highlights the need for flexible parental leave options and the impact of parenting decisions such as having a nanny and choosing whether to breastfeed on returning to work. In this conversation, Fiona discusses various aspects of parenting, decision-making, vulnerability, and work-life balance. She...
2023-12-191h 00Miracle Working MumsE21 featuring Louise Cornish: Postpartum fitness for this Oxford EconomistToday I share the story of Louise Cornish, who is the mum of two young boys and a fitness coach specialising in postpartum fitness. Louise studied Economics at Oxford and dabbled with career options in investment banking, where even as an intern she experienced some of the misogyny which is often associated with the industry. Louise has a really interesting career journey which combines her strengths and passions of your more typical "work skills" with a passion for being active. Louise decided to make the plunge and launch her own business after her mat leave following her second son...
2023-12-0851 minMiracle Working MumsE20 featuring Minke Van Til: Worklife at an all-female company and the decision to go for baby twoThis week I talk to Minke Van Til who works for an all-female charity, Ella's. Minke and the team at Ellas work with traumatised and marginalised survivors of trafficking and exploitation, as well as their dependent children. Many of the women have been abused from a young age. Nearly half are refugees or asylum seekers. Most have complex mental health needs. They face many barriers to accessing the support they need to recover and build lives that are safe and free for themselves and their children. Without vital support from Ella’s, many of these families could fall back in...
2023-12-0144 minMiracle Working MumsE19 featuring Jane Carmichael: Is being an ”army wife” its own career? PART TWOThis week we hear the second half of Jane Carmichael’s story. The family is living within the wire on a closed-down base when she finds another opportunity to use her words for good. Jane experiences working remotely pre-pandemic, before the now well-trodden path of agile working was a thing, and it was very hard! Jane also sends her girls to boarding school, which is a great privilege but also a tremendous hardship. The cost of childcare was prohibitive to working outside the home when the girls were little, which has definitely reduced Jane’s ability to maximise her econ...
2023-11-1739 minMiracle Working MumsE18 featuring Jane Carmichael: Is being an ”army wife” its own career? PART ONEThis podcast features Jane Carmichael, who is a powerful storyteller with a vocation to use words for good. She is a writer from within her bones and this surfaces at every opportunity in her life. Jane's career has many twists and turns due to being an "army wife" and regularly having to relocate, but she always finds another opportunity to use words for good. This episode was over an hour and a half long so to do it justice I have made it into two-parts, and after two parts we are still only just scratching the surface. I am...
2023-11-1058 minMiracle Working MumsE17 featuring Laura Harvey: Adoption and co-parenting with a co-workerToday I talk to Laura Harvey, a director at the Davies Group. Laura joined the Davies group aged 18 with no clear direction, apart from one day wanting to have a family. Despite this, she rose through the ranks and also met her husband within the same organisation. Laura and her husband had planned to become birth parents but this was not to be for them and in 2021 they adopted a pair of siblings aged 3 and 4, at the time. Laura's story is a great one to listen to to head about the path to adoption and it has made me...
2023-11-0349 minMiracle Working MumsE16 featuring Vona Aghoghovbia-Ezichi: The Power of Finding a Working Mum Who Looks Like YouThis week I speak to Vona Aghoghovbia-Ezichi, Managing Director, Head of Finance Europe & APAC at Nuveen, an Asset Management firm. Vona is a force, taking control of her own future with her three-yearly life check-ins, but finding out that when it comes to becoming a mum, there are some things you can't control. Vona tells me that when she saw someone who looked like her doing what she wanted to do it gave her the confidence that she needed to recognise her own value and to go for it. I am so happy to be able to share this...
2023-10-2746 minMiracle Working MumsE15 featuring Rebecca Amoroso: A Daughter of the Windrush generation who has bloomed where she was plantedIn this episode I talk to Reverend Rebecca Amoroso, whose mother, Bianca, arrived in England at Tilbury Docks from Trinidad in order to embark on a career as a nurse in the NHS. Rebecca became a mum to her son in-between finishing her A-levels and going to university, which was younger than most of her friends but became another wonderful opportunity in her life. Rebecca identifies the lack of affordable childcare as a barrier for women who want to return to work or study after becoming a parent and doubts she would have been able to access university education...
2023-10-2057 minMiracle Working MumsE14 featuring Lyle Steffenson: Racial profiling of a single mum and the power of allyshipToday I am talking to Lyle Steffenson, who grew up in Apartheid South Africa before moving to Australia. Lyle is a mum of four in a blended family, but until a few years ago was raising her children by herself. As a single mum, Lyle still managed to carve out a career for herself in insurance, protecting some of the most vulnerable people in her community. Her story is very moving and you just need to listen! During this Black History Month, I am definitely saluting Lyle who is an incredible role model professionally and as a mum.
2023-10-1459 minMiracle Working MumsE13 feauturing Eleshia Harris: Helping female business owners get clear on their goals to turn their desires into revenueThis week I speak to Eleshia Harris about her personal wellbeing journey and how the stress of her role in investment banking was preventing her from conceiving. In fact we talk a lot about how stress impacts women's bodies in general, and how we can harness our hormonal cycles to our best advantage.
We also celebrate Black History Month which, in the UK, is celebrated throughout October. This year the theme is 'celebrating our sisters' so I wanted to take a moment to celebrate the amazing positive impact Eleshia has had on her community and with her c...
2023-10-0643 minMiracle Working MumsE12 featuring Gemma Livermore: The mum of six who asks women ’what do you need’?Gemma Livermore and her partner Claire co-parent six children in their blended family. Gemma is the International FS Marketing Lead for a sales enablement software company called Seismic, and the Founder of the Women of FinTech network. At heart she is an anthropologist who loves people's stories and connecting dots, so no wonder the universe brought us together! She has a fascinating story so listen and enjoy!
2023-09-2937 minMiracle Working MumsE11 featuring Lauren Hoare and Maddie Knowles: Egg-freezing for thirty-somethingsNot everyone is ready to have a baby when their bodies are in peak-fertility mode. Increasingly women are deciding to have their eggs-frozen, to buy themselves time to be ready to have a family, as female bodies' fertility diminishes at a younger age than male bodies. But this is a costly process, not just financially, although it does cost in the region of £10k for the collection and storage, but emotionally and physically too.
Today I talk to Lauren Hoare and Maddie Knowles about their thought process they are going through as thirty-something women, not currently ready t...
2023-09-2241 minMiracle Working MumsE10 featuring Catherine Williamson: Feeling grateful rather than worthy to return to work post-Mat leaveThis week I talk to Catherine Williamson about how people make all the difference when it comes to positive and challenging work situations. Catherine has always been driven by the desire to be financially self-sufficient. She has always wanted to provide for herself, motivated by seeing women with limited financial literacy and perceiving them to be economically vulnerable and not wanting that for herself. Catherine's experience of returning to work after maternity leave were not positive ones, although with her inherent growth mindset and optimistic attitude she made the best out of the situations. This episode has so much...
2023-09-1548 minMiracle Working MumsE9 featuring Susan Andrew: Getting a promotion while on maternity leaveToday I speak to Susan Andrew, an Australian lawyer working in a senior operations role within the Lloyd's insurance market. Susan was successful in being promoted into a more senior role in the days before her maternity leave started. Susan is candid about how she made the difficult decision to stop trying for a baby in order to pursue a new role at a new organisation. Susan works hard and her kids are her motivation to be better at work, if she has to be away for them it has to be worthwhile! We also talk about IVF, recruitment...
2023-09-0838 minMiracle Working MumsE8 featuring Debbie Danon: Rebel leadership at home and work and redefining fatherhoodThis week I speak to Debbie Danon, leadership coach, facilitator and the founder of Rebel Leadership. Debbie is also building a women’s community called COVN Collective, online and in person. Debbie talks about how her early life experience in the theater and as a youth leader has shaped her vocation and purpose in life. She shares her experience being bisexual, of baby loss, and of the termination of pregnancy due to medical reasons. Debbie talks about the need to redefine fatherhood and to create a positive role model of masculinity that is inclusive of care-giving.
And she even paused the...
2023-09-0151 minMiracle Working MumsE7 featuring Randi Tangney: Maternal Healthcare in the US and Capitalising the Cost of Parental LeaveThis week I am talking to Randi Tangney, an Employment attorney in the USA. Randi talks about becoming a mum and role model to three incredible girls whilst also trying to resolve the physical and mental demands of breastfeeding, no sleep, pumping and fitting a baby into a trial schedule. Randi also shares the additional barriers women in the US face to having a family and a career when she describes how her healthcare cover was tied to her job, and so leaving her job to care for her child was never an option, especially not when her unborn...
2023-07-2144 minMiracle Working MumsE6 featuring Elina Demurger-Jones: Mental Health and the challenge of making different decisions to your peersThis week I am talking to Elina Demurger-Jones about the career “one-night stands” she was able to try out with the security of her partner’s financial support to enable her to flirt with different jobs, including working around nursery hours, before finding her one true vocation in life. Elina shares her child-like rage when her husband decides to follow her into the same career. Despite their career alignment, Elina’s role favours the employed structure with the security of sick-pay, pension contributions and holiday pay, whereas her husband is self-employed: higher-risk and higher-reward. We talk trauma, mental health, and NHS...
2023-07-0646 minMiracle Working MumsE5 featuring Rachel: What It Feels Like For a Girl (who is self-employed and having a baby)This week on Miracle Working Mums I get to speak to Rachel, a fashion-industry creative with no static definition of herself. She tells me about the glamour of the industry, hanging out with celebs and living the fashion-dream with no thoughts or visibility of women in the industry having kids. We talk role-models, ladette culture, and being a girl, and I get to quote my favourite Madonna song (the clue is in the title)! Rachel embraced motherhood when she was successfully running her own business and had to face the challenges of financial insecurity, choosing to stop, losing clients...
2023-06-3042 minMiracle Working MumsE4 featuring Michelle Junaid: Hiding in the loo to get things doneThis week I have been talking to Michelle Junaid who always knew she wanted a big family and a career with longevity, but never thought about how those things would impact each other. Michelle had her first child whilst working for a company with no maternity benefits above statutory minimum and she helped the company enhance this knowing that it was already too late for her to benefit from that policy herself. Michelle talks about how she and her husband play to their strengths and split parenting equitably so they both pursue their interests and objectives. Michelle is also...
2023-06-2333 minMiracle Working MumsE2 featuring Helen Eber: Talking assisted fertility, home help, keeping in touch and authentic leadership!In this episode of Miracle Working Mums Podcast I am talking to Helen Eber, a senior HR Professional with one son, who is based in Singapore. We discuss some of the differences in motherhood in Singapore and the UK, the amazingness that is a confinement nurse, and the benefits of home help and affordable childcare. Helen also shares her story of assisted fertility, the inconvenience of multiple medical appointments and the fortune of being able to control your own diary, as well as the challenge of trying to be an authentic leader and brining your whole self to work...
2023-06-0937 minMiracle Working MumsE1 Suffering in silence: talking baby loss with another HannahTrigger warning: baby loss
Today I am talking to another Hannah, who wanted to share her story about multiple miscarriages, but didn't want to be fully identified. Hannah has a senior operations role in the financial services industry. Too often women are going through one of life's greatest tragedies without being able to talk about it at work as they fear how their colleagues and managers will respond and what impact it might have on their prospects in the organisation, even when this impact is well-meaning.
If you have been affected by today's topic and...
2023-06-0234 minMiracle Working MumsMiracle Working Mums - Intro
Welcome to Miracle Working Mums podcast with me, your host, Hannah Pring, where we will explore the working woman’s journey to and through motherhood.
Through this podcast I will ask my guests to talk about their lives before they were mothers to understand a little bit about what their expectations and plans were, and then we will reflect on what the reality was for them as their families grew and they realised things don’t always go to plan.
2023-05-2301 min