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The Breadwinners Podcast

Alexis Contos

They say you can't have it all — that mothers must choose between ambition and presence. But what if we're asking the wrong question?

On The Breadwinners Podcast, Alexis Contos redefines what it means to be a Breadwinner in modern culture, moving it far beyond the paycheck. Through raw, honest conversations with women like Morgan Zanotti (CEO of Primal Kitchen), Nicole Trunfio (CEO of Bumpsuit), and Eve Rodsky (Author of Fair Play & Find Your Unicorn Space), we explore what it really takes to bring financial richness, emotional richness, and systemic change to our families.

This isn't about balance, it's about integration. Not perfection, but wholeness.

Whether you're already navigating motherhood and career, building your empire before kids arrive, or reimagining what family leadership looks like, these conversations will challenge everything you've been told about what's possible.

The Breadwinners: Where ambitious mothers aren't just earning a living, they're pioneering a new era for themselves, and everyone who comes next.

Learn more at thebreadwinners.co.

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  • 21 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 1 hr 8 min
  • English

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  • August 18 · 1 hr 17 min

    Trimester Zero, Male Fertility, and Why Balance Is a Hoax with the Founders of WeNatal | The Breadwinners Podcast

    WeNatal co-founders Ronit Menashe and Vida Delrahim explain trimester zero: the three months before conception when both partners can improve egg and sperm quality through targeted nutrition, bioavailable supplements, and cutting alcohol, smoking, and vaping. Male factor influences roughly half of miscarriage and infertility outcomes, and men regenerate sperm continuously, which means the window to improve is real and short. On this episode of The Breadwinners, Ronit and Vida also share how they built a bootstrapped prenatal supplement company after two miscarriages a week apart, why the supplement industry runs on smoke and mirrors, and what burnout, a health crash, and losing a home in the Palisades fire taught them about time. Ronit and Vida were best friends and Nike colleagues who lost pregnancies within a week of each other in spring 2020 and were told by their doctors that it just happens. They refused that answer, dug into the research, put their husbands on antioxidants for three months, and both went on to have healthy daughters. That experiment became WeNatal, which has now helped 30,000 people become parents. In this conversation, Alexis Contos talks with them about building a company while postpartum, growing for three years on nights and weekends and no salary, why they turned down the paid-ads playbook, and what their daughters see when they watch their mothers work. What you will hear: Why "just happens" is not an answer, and what to ask your doctor instead Trimester zero and the specific antioxidants that support sperm and egg quality How to read a supplement label: third-party testing, bioavailable forms, and fillers "Balance is like a hoax": what a health crash and a house fire taught them about non-negotiables Bootstrapping against competitors with $40 to $50 million in venture money The Google Doc called "Bestie Co" and why you should write letters to your future self Timestamps: 00:00 Why WeNatal chose podcasts over paid ads 02:23 The club of women told they were too old 04:09 Two miscarriages a week apart 09:18 Trimester zero: what they put their husbands on 13:16 How men show up in the fertility conversation 18:20 Supplement industry smoke and mirrors: third-party testing and bioavailability 25:05 Building the company while postpartum 30:35 Burnout, and why balance is a hoax 36:32 The Palisades fire and the wake-up call 38:20 Don't wait for rock bottom 43:09 What their daughters see 48:29 Bootstrapping and the cost of patience 55:34 The legacy question 56:38 Breadwinner Artifacts: the Bestie Co Google Doc 59:31 Letters to your future self and trusting your gut 62:39 Breadwinner Bites 72:06 Where to find WeNatal Start your WeNatal routine today by going to wenatal.com/BREADWINNERS and receive a free Rest+Digest Magnesium supplement ($30 value) with your first prenatal subscription. Join The Breadwinners community: Subscribe on Substack: wearethebreadwinners.substack.com Follow on Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners Rate and review wherever you listen. It helps more women find this show. #breadwinner #fertility #trimesterzero #womeninbusiness #femalefounders #prenatal #motherhood #entrepreneurship Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • August 11 · 51 min

    Saved Seats | The Mental Load of Dads: Nick Firchau on Modern Fatherhood

    *This is a replayed episode from earlier in Season 1* The first man to sit at the Breadwinners table. We're bringing back this conversation with Nick Firchau, host of the Paternal podcast, because the questions it raises haven't gone anywhere. Nick has interviewed more than 130 men about fatherhood, and this episode gets into what those conversations reveal: men parenting without a model, the friendships they don't know how to build, and the load they carry but rarely name. Alexis and Nick also take on the topics that tend to get avoided, from the respect-versus-love dynamic in marriages to whether lifting up mothers has left fathers out of the conversation. In this episode: Why roughly 40% of the fathers Nick has interviewed grew up without a father figure at home, and how that shapes the way they parent now The sitcom trope that taught a generation of men how to be dads, going all the way back to Father Knows Best What Nick learned about himself when he examined why he says "be careful" to his kids The invisible load of fathers, and why men are reluctant to talk about it "Benefit of the doubt," the two-word operating rule at the center of Nick's marriage Nick Firchau is a longtime journalist and podcast producer, and the creator and host of Paternal, a show about the brotherhood of fatherhood. Since launching in 2017, Paternal has featured Super Bowl winners, Pulitzer Prize winning journalists, and award-winning authors, and has been named a best podcast for fathers by Apple Podcasts and Lifehacker. Nick lives outside Boulder, Colorado with his wife and two kids. Join The Breadwinners community: Subscribe on Substack: wearethebreadwinners.substack.com Follow on Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners Rate & review wherever you listen - it helps more women find this show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • August 4 · 1 hr 6 min

    What New Moms Actually Need: Melanie Kaplan on Postpartum Mental Health and Building oPPal

    Melanie Kaplan is the founder and CEO of oPPal, a peer support platform for postpartum moms that matches new and expecting mothers, called Little oPPals, with trained, experienced mothers, called Big oPPals. She built it after her own experience with severe postpartum depression and anxiety, and she joined host Alexis Contos the same week oPPal launched nationally in May 2026. In this conversation, Melanie shares the full story for the first time in this much depth. Four months after her first daughter was born, a weaning hormone crash collided with a birth control error, and Melanie left home for four nights, driving toward the ocean because she needed to see something bigger than what was happening inside her. Two years later, she found a video she had recorded for her daughter during those days, posted it on Instagram, and woke up to hundreds of messages from women sharing their own postpartum stories. That morning changed her career. Melanie and Alexis talk about the early warning signs of postpartum anxiety that get dismissed as normal new mom worry, why the standard six week screening misses the gray area where most struggling mothers actually live, and the hole in American postpartum care where a woman goes from weekly appointments during pregnancy to almost nothing after birth. Melanie explains how she validated oPPal before writing a single line of it: a survey that drew over 300 responses in 48 hours, with more than 80 percent of moms saying they would mentor a new mother, and a beta that proved matches work best with someone outside your inner circle. She walks through the Big oPPal training, including the platform's central rule that every check-in starts with the mom, not the baby, and how oPPal's partnership with Phoenix Health creates a path to therapists trained in maternal mental health when peer support isn't enough. The episode closes with the legacy conversation, the story behind the logo drawn from her grandmother's handwriting, and what Melanie's daughter says her mommy does all day. This episode is for anyone navigating postpartum, supporting someone who is, or building a company from lived experience. Find oPPal: www.myoppal.com Instagram: @myoppal Join The Breadwinners community: Subscribe on Substack: wearethebreadwinners.substack.com Follow on Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners Rate and review wherever you listen. It helps more women find this show. If you are struggling with postpartum depression or anxiety, Postpartum Support International is at postpartum.net. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • July 28 · 58 min

    Saved Seats | Julie Cordua on Protecting Kids Online: AI, the Dark Web, and What Parents Can Do

    This is a replay of an earlier episode. Alexis reunites with Julie Cordua, CEO of Thorn, the organization building technology to defend children from online sexual exploitation. The two worked together 15 years ago on Thorn's launch, and Alexis has watched Julie turn that early mission into her life's work while raising three kids of her own. **Content warning: This episode discusses child sexual abuse and exploitation. We don't include graphic details, but the subject matter is inherently difficult.** This conversation explores what it means to be a Breadwinner when your currency goes beyond the financial - measured instead in children identified, abuse content removed, and platforms made safer. Julie breaks down how AI has changed the landscape of child exploitation, what actually happens on the dark web, where tech companies must do better, and what parents can do right now to protect their children online. What you'll learn in this episode: Why kids see no divide between online and offline life, and why "stranger danger" no longer works as a warning When to start age-appropriate online safety conversations (hint: before the first device, and yes, that includes the iPad) The warning signs of grooming and sextortion, and why kids block instead of reporting Exactly what to do if it happens to your family: why you block but never delete, the Take It Down tool, and when to contact the FBI How AI is being used on both sides of this fight, and what policy changes Thorn is pushing for in Washington Whether you're navigating your child's digital life or want to understand how to make a difference, this conversation will leave you informed and equipped. Resources: Thorn Thorn on Instagram Julie's TED Talk Thorn Parent Guide Join The Breadwinners community: Subscribe on Substack: wearethebreadwinners.substack.com Follow on Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners Rate & review wherever you listen - it helps more women find this show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • S1 · E26
    July 21 · 1 hr 1 min

    Jaclyn Johnson on Building, Losing, and Reclaiming Everything

    Jaclyn Johnson built Create and Cultivate from a blog into a multi-million dollar company, sold it, watched it fall apart under new ownership, and bought it back. In this episode, Create and Cultivate founder Jaclyn Johnson breaks down what it actually costs to build a company: a $75 million acquisition deal that collapsed because of COVID, a private equity sale two years later, a stage zero breast cancer diagnosis, and a marriage that ended along the way. She explains how she negotiated her way back into ownership of the company she started in 2012, why she now runs Cherub to get more women into angel investing, and how resilience carried her through every setback. What you'll learn in this episode: - Why Create and Cultivate didn't turn a profit for five years, and why that was the point - The difference between a strategic acquisition and a private equity buyout - How COVID killed a $75 million deal and forced a pivot to virtual events overnight - What to know before your next mammogram, and how to push for a second opinion - How she negotiated to buy back her own company after the PE firm decided to sell - Why women get 1.9% of VC funding, and how Cherub is closing that gap with angel investing starting at $10,000 Jaclyn Johnson is the founder of Create and Cultivate, the media and events platform for women entrepreneurs she built starting in 2012 and grew into a multi-million dollar company before selling a majority stake in 2021. She later bought the company back and now also runs Cherub, an angel investing platform built to get more capital into the hands of women. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro/Teaser 02:32 Meet Jaclyn Johnson 05:30 Building community before it was trendy 10:15 Early career, layoffs, and starting over 16:14 The moment Create and Cultivate got real 20:08 Getting acquired, a deal falling through, and COVID 25:12 Strategic acquisition vs. private equity, explained 30:05 Buying back her own company 34:28 Identity, marriage, and the crash after the sale 38:03 Her breast cancer diagnosis 44:01 What to do when you get "the call" 47:22 Founding Cherub and democratizing angel investing 49:26 Accreditation and check sizes, explained 53:34 Her mom, the unofficial co-founder 55:34 Defining "breadwinner" Join The Breadwinners community: Subscribe on Substack: wearethebreadwinners.substack.com Follow on Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners Rate & review wherever you listen - it helps more women find this show #CreateAndCultivate #WomenInBusiness #FemaleFounders #AngelInvesting #WomenAndMoney #BreastCancerAwareness #Breadwinner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • July 14 · 55 min

    Saved Seats | Morgan Zanotti on Building Brands while Building Family.

    In this episode, Alexis Contos sits down with Morgan Zanotti, the founder behind Waay and former leader at Primal Kitchen, to discuss what it really takes to build wellness brands while being a breadwinner mother. From navigating the competitive CPG industry to creating products that align with her values as a parent, Morgan shares the unfiltered reality of startup life, financial responsibility, and integration. Learn about her journey from established brand to founder, her philosophy on health and family, and how she's redefining what success looks like as a mother-entrepreneur in the wellness space. The Breadwinners Join The Breadwinners on Substack - wearethebreadwinners.substack.com Waay Morgan's Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • July 7 · 1 hr 3 min

    Your Kid's Boredom Matters More Than You Think - Lizzie Assa on Independent Play | The Breadwinners Podcast

    Most parents think entertaining their kids is the job. Lizzie Assa says the real job is stepping back enough for kids to build the skill of playing independently. Lizzie Assa, founder of The Workspace for Children and author of But I'm Bored, joins The Breadwinners to break down what independent play actually is and why it's disappearing from modern childhood. Alexis and Lizzie get into the difference between a toy and a prompt, why a bored kid is a sign you're doing something right, and how to build independent play skills from toddlerhood through the teenage years. What you'll learn: We co-regulate our kids. When we're a calm presence, they can be one too, they just want to be in the same room as us The permission slip to do less: stepping back and saying less is what gives kids their lead back How to look at how your kid is most successful in play, and give them more of that instead of trying to fix how they play Why a bored kid is usually looking for connection, not an activity How to look at behavior through the lens of curiosity instead of discipline Why no kid is a bad kid, and what changes when you actually believe that Lizzie Assa is a former teacher with a master's degree in education and the founder of The Workspace for Children, a play-based parenting platform with nearly 300,000 followers on Instagram. She is the author of But I'm Bored and works with private clients to build independent play skills in kids of all ages. Join Lizzie’s community: https://www.workspaceforchildren.com/ Her Substack: The Workspace for Children Purchase Lizzie’s ‘But I’m Bored’ book ____________________________________ Join The Breadwinners community: Subscribe on Substack: Follow on Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners Rate & review wherever you listen - it helps more women find this show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • June 30 · 1 hr 19 min

    Saved Seat | Ali Tate Cutler on How Moms Actually Build Businesses

    Ali Tate Cutler⁠ gets brutally honest about what nobody tells you: how to build a business while grieving the version of yourself you once were. Less than 1% of guests on major business podcasts are mothers. The rest? Childless men teaching strategies that don't work when you're building while celebrating your own transformation as a working mom. Ali (former supermodel turned social media strategist) created a new framework: Mothers don't grind, we create. We don't hustle, we flow. She shares the grieving process of losing her pre-mother self, what she misses, the paradox of freedom, how to create when your time is fractured, and what small business owners get wrong about social media. What You'll Learn: How moms actually build businesses versus the traditional playbook The grief of losing your pre-mother self and why it's okay The paradox of choice after choosing kids Creating (not grinding) with constant interruptions What's wrong with "hustle" advice for working parents Building visibility without burnout Honoring who you were while becoming who you are ⁠Connect with Ali⁠ ⁠Join The Breadwinners on Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • June 23 · 1 hr 32 min

    Neha Ruch on the Best Payback: Loving Your Life When No One's Watching | The Breadwinners Podcast

    Twenty years ago, Neha Ruch and I were colleagues at an ad agency in Boston. Two twenty-somethings staying late, expensing cab rides home, measuring our worth by how hard we hustled. Today, between us, we have six kids, two platforms, and a completely different definition of what it means to be ambitious. Neha is the founder of The Power Pause and the author of the book by the same name. For a decade she's been building language for a question most high-achieving women won't say out loud: if I'm not working for pay, what is success? This isn't an interview. It's a reunion - two old friends comparing notes on what the journey actually cost, and what it gave back.In this episode, we talk about: Why the real turning point in Neha's life came in motherhood, not business school How to write your ideal day, and why it works like a contract with yourself The invisible emotional labor of parenthood, and how to start noticing it again Making decisions that no one else has to understand, and why that's the hardest muscle to build Growing up alongside your kids as they need less of you Redefining ambition as aligning your time with your values, not maximizing your output Why we punish women for slowing down, and what it costs all of us The best payback: loving your life when no one is watching _______________________________ The Four Agreements book mentioned by Neha Find Neha at thepowerpause.com and on Instagram at @neha_ruch Subscribe to The Breadwinners on Substack Follow on Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • June 16 · 14 min

    In Confidence: A Series from The Breadwinners | What Breadwinner Mothers Say When No One Is Performing

    Most working mothers have never been asked what they actually carry, and what they bring. At our Los Angeles dinner, we pulled women aside and asked. In Confidence is a five-part documentary series filmed at The Breadwinners' inaugural Los Angeles dinner. Eight women stepped away from the table and into something rarer: unfiltered truth. What came out wasn't curated. It was real. Over five episodes, Breadwinner mothers, primary earners, founders, executives, single mothers, confront the questions that don't typically get asked. What IS my job description as a mother, no one gave it to me? Am I feeling guilty about working, or just devastated that my kids are growing up? What do I actually bring home beyond the paycheck? Presented by The Breadwinners in partnership with birthFUND and Hearth. Episode 1: Reframing Motherhood — What We Bring The series opens with the question at the heart of everything: what do you carry, and what do you bring? Elaine Welteroth leads a conversation about the invisible weight of working motherhood - and the value we bring home that never makes it into the performance. The cuddle party. The fresh whipped cream in the fridge. The things our families need that only we provide. This episode is about remembering what that is. Episode 2: Who Am I Now? The Vulnerability of Motherhood Not every mother fits the traditional template - and for some women, figuring out what their version of motherhood actually looks like has been the hardest work of their lives. This conversation asks a question most of us have never been asked out loud: what is your job description as a mother? No one handed it to you. This episode sits with the women who had to write it themselves. Episode 3: That Unstoppable Feeling — When Motherhood Unlocks Ambition Shilpa Shah, co-founder of Cuyana, didn't slow down when she got pregnant. She felt unstoppable. This episode is for anyone who has ever been told they can't do it with kids - and responded, internally or out loud, with watch me. It's about what pregnancy unlocked, what ambition looks like when you stop caring what everyone else thinks, and why motherhood is, for some women, the moment everything accelerates. Episode 4: Raising Better Humans — The Legacy We Leave Shilpa Shah still makes her 17-year-old breakfast every morning. He wrote his college essay about wanting to live the way she has. This episode is about presence, ripple effects, and what it actually means to build something your kids will one day describe as the permission structure for their own lives. Having it all without doing it all — what that actually looks like in practice. Episode 5: Reclaiming "Breadwinner" for Today's Mother The word breadwinner used to mean one thing. These women are rewriting it. Three breadwinner mothers, three very different origin stories, one shared conviction: this is the revolution we asked for. This episode closes the series with the question of legacy - not just for our children, but for the definition of what it means to provide, lead, and build a life that is both financially powerful and emotionally rich. _______________________________________________ Join The Breadwinners community: Subscribe on Substack: wearethebreadwinners.substack.com Follow on Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners Rate & review wherever you listen — it helps more women find this show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • June 9 · 1 hr 19 min

    Saved Seats - Replaying Libby Leffler on Protecting Your Future Self: Your Marriage and Money

    This is a replay of an earlier episode with Libby Leffler of First. Libby Leffler built an entire company around the conversation most couples never have. As founder and CEO of First, a platform making prenuptial agreements accessible to modern couples, she's reframing the prenup not as a divorce document but as a partnership design tool - the first legal agreement a couple makes, not the last resort. In this episode, Alexis sits down with Libby to explore what it actually means to build a financial foundation before a marriage, why money is harder to talk about than sex, and what the $80 trillion great wealth transfer means for women right now. They also go deep on integration over balance, raising daughters who watch you work, focus as a superpower, and what it looks like to lead a startup while showing up as a parent. What you'll learn in this episode: Why nearly 50% of millennials now get a prenup — and why women are initiating that conversation at the same rate as men. How a prenup protects the future you, not just the assets you have today — including your business equity, IP, real estate, and even your social media handles. Why money is the last great taboo and what it will take to normalize financial conversations the way we've normalized talking about sex. - What "partnership design" actually looks like when couples approach a prenup as a joining point. How Libby integrates running a high-growth startup with raising young children — and why she's replaced "balance" with seasons. The Breadwinners Website ⁠- Join The Breadwinners on Substack - wearethebreadwinners.substack.com Breadwinner's Instagram⁠ - @wearethebreadwinners ⁠First Official Website ⁠ First's Instagram⁠ ⁠Libby’s Instagram⁠ Business Insider Article _______________ Promo for The Breadwinners Community: $100 off your prenup with First by using code BREAD100 at checkout. Discount codes must be applied at checkout. No retroactive coupon codes or refunds applied. ________________ Rate and review The Breadwinners Podcast wherever you listen — it helps more women find this show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • June 2 · 1 hr 18 min

    Jeni Britton | Founder of Jeni's and Floura, on the Cost of Being a Woman with Ambition | The Breadwinners Podcast

    Jeni Britton built Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams from a $30,000 SBA loan into a $175 million company. She is doing it again with Floura, her next-generation fiber company turning produce trimmings like watermelon rinds and apple cores into nutrient-dense bars. This episode is not a business case study. Alexis Contos sits down with Jeni for an interior conversation about the person underneath both companies. The near-death experience at age seven that made her feel invincible for the rest of her life. The family that broke apart violently when she was fourteen. Why she does not believe in free will anymore. The ninety-eight-year-old version of herself she talks to most days. What she has refused to give up for any company, in any season. This is a conversation about belief. About vision. About what it costs to be a woman who is ambitious, and what it costs to keep pretending you are not. What you will hear: The near-death experience at age seven that shaped every decision after it Why Jeni had to "pretend to be less ambitious" to build something big How she thinks about intuition, vision, and listening to her future self What her definition of 'financial freedom' actually buys a woman Raising her daughter Greta, and what it taught her about herself Leaving the company that carries her name, and the time it took to recover Why she does not want a legacy. She wants to be wrecked at ninety-eight. Jeni Britton is the founder of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, which she built from a single farmer's market stall in Columbus, Ohio into a national brand with more than 80 scoop shops and 12,500 retail placements. She is now the co-founder and CEO of Floura, a Certified B Corporation tackling America's fiber deficiency and food waste through upcycled produce trimmings. Join The Breadwinners community: Subscribe on Substack: wearethebreadwinners.substack.com Follow on Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners Rate & review wherever you listen. It helps more women find this show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • S1 · E22
    May 26 · 1 hr 20 min

    You Can't Productivity Your Way Out of Burnout | Dr. Pooja Lakshmin on Why Real Self-Care Is Infrastructure

    Most women have been sold self-care as a product. Dr. Pooja Lakshmin is here to tell you it's infrastructure. Pooja is a board-certified psychiatrist, New York Times contributor, and author of the national bestseller Real Self-Care: Crystals, Cleanses, and Bubble Baths Not Included. In this episode, she breaks down the four principles of real self-care (boundaries, compassion, values, power), the difference between performative wellness and the internal work that actually moves the needle, and why high-achieving women keep landing in the same burnout loop. She also shares the moment she landed in the hospital after her own bestseller launch, what she had to unlearn about pacing and ambition, and the framework she now uses to make every yes, no, and negotiate. What we discussed: The story of how Pooja landed at the very first Breadwinners dinner seven months pregnant with twins, and why she calls that night the room where strangers became people speaking the same language. Her origin story: growing up the eldest daughter in a South Asian immigrant family where becoming a doctor was decided before she was born, choosing psychiatry against expectations, and the moment at 27 when she blew up her marriage and moved into a San Francisco wellness commune that turned out to be a cult. The difference between faux self-care and real self-care, broken down through the yoga class most women have lived: walking in stressed, comparing yourself to the woman in the better leggings, leaving more depleted than you came in. Why the four principles (boundaries, compassion, values, power) are not affirmations but infrastructure, and how Pooja walks her own patients through schedule audits to surface what's actually optional. The line that landed hardest: "If you're a good mom, you can productivity your way out of this." We unpacked the meal kits, the apps, the planners, and the question almost no one is asking: to what end. Why hobbies are not a luxury. Why the activity has to be uniquely yours, not performative, not productive, not posted. Tennis as a happy place. The Substack prompt that hit: what would you do to truly enjoy something that no one else needs to see. The Real Self-Care Thermometer: how to know when you're in the green (spontaneously generous, easy yes, real energy) versus the red (resentful, zombie scrolling, every ask feels like a chore). Modeling this for our kids. Pooja telling her four-year-old she was going to a Florence and the Machine concert instead of saying "work meeting," and why that distinction matters. Family logistics. The decision to make childcare a permanent line item in the family budget. Night nurses through every pregnancy. Why getting support is not a luxury and the case for being transparent about it. Pooja's own burnout. The four nights in the hospital after Real Self-Care became a bestseller. The coach who told her the thing that will stop her career is not her skill, it's burnout. The Glennon Doyle invitation she pushed to January, and what happened when she did. The boundary framework that changed how she works: the boundary is the pause, not the no. Every request has three answers: yes, no, or negotiate. And if you can't absorb the cost of no today, the question is what you need to do over the next six months to get there. Quantum Shifts, her next book. The in-between space after a divorce, a launch, a diagnosis, a birth. Why high-achieving women try to rush through it, and what they miss when they do. What she would tell her 27-year-old self. The slow-down advice she rejected for decades and now claims as a superpower. Join The Breadwinners community: Subscribe on Substack: wearethebreadwinners.substack.com Follow on Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners Rate and review wherever you listen. It helps more women find this show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • S1 · E21
    May 19 · 55 min

    School Is Closed 46% of the Year. Molly Morse Finally Built the Solution.

    School is out 46% of the year. After you subtract PTO and federal holidays, working parents are left covering 99 days with no formal childcare — and no amount of workplace flexibility closes that gap. Molly Morse isn't just naming the problem. She built the solution. Molly Morse is the co-founder of Recess, a marketplace that connects parents to afterschool programs, camps, and kids' classes - with real-time availability, actual filters, and no glorified Craigslist energy. She spent a decade building consumer marketplaces before becoming a mother and experiencing firsthand how broken the search-and-booking experience was. That rage-plus-inspiration moment became a company. In this episode, Molly breaks down the data most people feel but haven't quantified, why ethical appeals to corporations will never move the needle on childcare, what AI is doing to marketplaces (and why it's actually a tailwind for Recess), and how she and her husband structured their household so she could build without burning everything down. What you'll take from this conversation: - Why 1.3 million people miss work every month because of childcare breakdowns — and 90% of them are women - How to make a business case for childcare benefits that corporations will actually act on (hint: it's ROI, not ethics) - The marketplace dynamics that explain why parents feel like everything is full while providers can't fill seats - How Recess is building the real-time inventory layer that makes AI search actually useful for families - The "systems are temporary" framework Molly uses at work and at home — and why fixing things at the wrong time is its own kind of problem Find Recess at hello-recess.com and on Instagram @hello_recess. Molly is active on LinkedIn. Join The Breadwinners community: Subscribe on Substack: wearethebreadwinners.substack.com Follow on Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners Rate & review wherever you listen — it helps more women find this show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • S1 · E20
    May 12 · 1 hr 18 min

    'I Am Enough': Iskra Lawrence on Breaking the Industry, Building Saltair, and Choosing Presence Over Performance

    Iskra Lawrence built one of the fastest-growing body care brands in America, ⁨Saltair , without paying herself a salary. That's not the beginning of the story. It's barely the middle. This episode traces one of the most honest founder journeys in beauty: a girl from Kidderminster UK told that she was too curvy for straight-size modeling and too small for plus-size. A model who cold-called brands directly, walked into a New York agency at 22 with a pitch deck, and made a veteran agent cry — because no model had ever done that before. A woman who challenged the retouching culture at Aerie, built one of the earliest honest communities on Instagram, and then found herself in COVID isolation with a newborn, not showering, barely holding on. SaltAir was born out of the pain she lived, and the hope she needed for herself, and millions of other women. Alexis and Iskra go deep on what it actually costs to build something real while mothering two young children — the guilt of clocking off at 2:30 to do school pickup, why Iskra reinvests every dollar back into the brand, how postpartum broke her open and gave her a company, and what empathy looks like as a breadwinner in a marriage where financial power isn't split evenly. In this episode: How Iskra went from eating disorder to building a body care brand doing nine figures in retail The cold-calling strategy that bypassed modeling's gatekeepers — and what it actually means to outwork a broken system Why she launched Saltaire without venture capital and has never taken a paycheck What postpartum depression in 2020 isolation looked like — and the habit that started her recovery Her honest take on the "3-hour bombing" discourse and how she leads a flexible, family-first team at Saltair Why empathy — not hustle — is her superpower as a breadwinner About Iskra Lawrence: Iskra Lawrence is a model, body image advocate, and founder of Saltair — currently a top-three body care brand at Ulta and one of the fastest-growing at Target. Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 and the BBC's 100 Most Influential Women, she spent six years challenging beauty industry norms as an Aerie model before building her own brand from the ground up. She lives in Austin with her husband Philip and their two children. Follow Iskra:@iskra on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok @saltair on all social channels Join The Breadwinners community: Subscribe on Substack Follow on Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners Rate & review wherever you listen — it helps more women find this show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • S1 · E19
    April 27 · 1 hr 27 min

    The Aesthetics Episode: Anatomy, Honesty, and What You Actually Need

    The aesthetics industry is largely run by marketing. Adriana Culling built her practice to be the exception. Adriana is the founder of Maeva Aesthetics in Austin - a nurse injector with a background in clinical research and a near-complete second degree in chemistry who chose building her own aesthetics business specifically so she would never feel pressure to upsell a patient or inject something that wasn't in their best interest. This episode cuts through the noise: what Botox and filler actually do, how to spot a bad injector before they touch your face, which treatments are worth it and which ones aren't, and why wanting to look refreshed doesn't make you vain or less yourself. What you'll learn: - How to vet an injector before you sit in the chair — and the red flags that should send you walking out - What "natural results" actually means and why most practices aren't delivering it - The difference between what you think you need and what your face actually needs - Which trending treatments are overhyped, which are worth it, and why it almost always depends on the individual - What it means to build a medical practice as a working mom — and why Adriana walked away from med school to do it ___________________________ Follow Adriana: TikTok Instagram: The_Austin_Injector Maeva Aesthetics _______________________________________ Episode references: Yardsticks Book for Childhood Development SkinBetter skincare products Join The Breadwinners community: Subscribe on Substack: wearethebreadwinners.substack.com Follow on Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners Rate & review wherever you listen — it helps more women find this show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • S1 · E18
    April 20 · 1 hr 11 min

    Your Body, Your Baseline: Pranitha Patil on Function Health, Women's Health Data, and Building While Becoming a Mother

    The tests exist. The science has been here for decades. The only thing that's ever been missing is access. Pranitha Patil co-founded Function Health because she lived the gap herself. Diagnosed with PCOS at 16, pre-diabetes and high cholesterol in her 20s, she spent years running experiments on her own body, tracking her biomarkers in a spreadsheet before she had the language for what she was actually doing. She was her own baseline because no research existed for South Asian women like her. Function Health now has nearly 500 employees, has delivered over 50 million health results, and 65% of its members are women - which tells you everything about who shows up when you actually give them the information about their own bodies. The membership is $365 a year. One dollar a day. And Pranitha became a first-time mother in the middle of all of it - while the company was scaling, while funding rounds were closing, while everything was happening at once. She's here to talk about what that actually looked like. In this episode: Why health data is a power issue, not just a wellness trend—and what changes when women have access to their own biomarkers How Function Health works: 100+ biomarkers per test, early cancer detection (50 cancer types), and what it means to build a longitudinal health picture over time The women's health gap - the research that doesn't exist and what Pranitha did when told she couldn't be put on statins because no one had studied her yet Building and founding in seasons: how Pranitha and her husband structured their household so one could sprint while the other held the ground On becoming a mother inside a hyper-growth company: what she expected, what blindsided her, and why she thinks founder and mother are more complementary than the world wants you to believe Perimenopause, women's health literacy, and the conversation our mothers never got to have Resilience as a learned skill - what the "soft" 20-year-old version of Pranitha built that the founder version depends on today Use the code: BREADWINNERS50 for $50 off when you sign up for Function Health Join The Breadwinners community: Subscribe on Substack Follow on Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners Rate & review wherever you listen — it helps more women find this show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • April 6 · 1 hr 20 min

    Saved Seats | Aileen Fitzgerald on The Art of Devotion: Leaving Nursing, and Chasing Her Dreams

    *THIS IS A REPLAY FROM AN EARLIER EPISODE IN SEASON 1* Aileen Fitzgerald left a nearly decade-long nursing career, ended a long-term relationship, and moved into a new home the night before the Austin snow apocalypse, with four weeks of rent money and a set of paint brushes. This episode is about what it looks like to burn your life down in order to build one that is actually yours. Aileen Fitzgerald is a world-renowned painter and former ICU nurse whose work captures what she calls the landscapes of the human condition. She joins Alexis Contos on The Breadwinners to talk about the art of devotion — being fully present with your children while pursuing your deepest calling — and why emotional richness is its own form of wealth. What we cover: How the pandemic cracked open a decade of emotional starvation and led Aileen back to her brushes What "structuring for freedom" actually looks like as a working artist and mother The single moment she realized no one was coming to save her, and what she did next How her art collections map directly to her inner life: sepia tones for survival, green for healing, red for love Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, neuroplasticity, and why holding your younger self's hand is a real practice Acupuncture, Barton Springs, and other non-negotiables for resetting your nervous system Why presence isn't a personality trait — it's a learned skill that starts with going outside About Aileen Fitzgerald: Aileen Fitzgerald is an Austin-based painter whose work explores landscape, color, and the interior life of being human. She spent nearly nine years as a critical care nurse before walking away entirely to rebuild her life as a professional artist. Her work is available through galleries and at aileenfitzart.com. Find her on Instagram: @aileenfitzart Join The Breadwinners community: Subscribe on Substack Follow on Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners Rate and review wherever you listen — it helps more women find this show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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