Mom Wants More

Today’s conversation is very special to us because it’s our final episode here at The Mom Wants More Podcast. One of our favorite lines from the MWM Manifesto is “We reserve the right to pivot”, and simultaneously this year we’ve both felt an internal pull towards some of our individual creative pursuits. Though this episode may feel like it’s coming out of left field to you, our listeners, it has not been a quick decision or one we’ve taken lightly. We absolutely adore working together here the on the podcast and this message of encouraging women to uncover and pursue their passion in the middle of their right now lives will always be the heartbeat of the work we both do. It simply happens to be that this work is taking us in new directions! We are deeply grateful for each one of you who’ve tuned in to listen and follow along, and we are honored to have served you in this space. While it’s bittersweet to close the chapter, we are both in full support of each other and excited for the new ways we can keep spreading this message of empowerment to the women in our lives!

Alright ladies, let's talk about it: body image struggles. We've all had them, and depending on the season of life/motherhood you're in, you may find yourself facing new or different challenges than you ever have in the past. Our bodies are constantly changing, and they're also constant companion as we walk through life- so we may as well invest in making that relationship a positive one! We understand that this can be a deeply personal and emotionally charged subject so we are entering into this conversation with gentleness and care. We're not here to tell you to change your figure, to make yourself smaller, or more fit, because we don't believe you owe the world any specific version of your body. But you DO owe it to yourself to feel at home in it, to find peace, and to practice loving it so that you can show up confidently in the world as your whole self. This episode will help you:

We've never met a woman who doesn't care about her body, and we've also never met a woman who hasn't struggled in her relationship with it in SOME way or another. You might be wondering what Body Image has to do with a podcast that helps women pursue their passions, but truly, we believe it has everything to do with it. The way we feel in our bodies directly affects how we show up in the world. It affects our energy, our mood, our confidence, and certainly our creativity too. Ladies, you don't owe the world any specific version of your body, but your do owe it to yourself to feel at home in it. Today on the podcast we're getting vulnerable and opening up about our own struggles in this arena because we trust that it's a helpful conversation for anyone wanting to come home to the body they live in and practice loving it, however that may look for you. Come join the conversation!

We can't think of a better way to kick off our theme of Body Love this month than with the incredibly talented, stunning, sparkly light of a human that is Arielle Estoria. She's a Poet, Author, Speaker, Emcee, and Model and we think Chandler Bing put it best when he said, "Could I BE any more excited?" If you've ever struggled to find peace in your physical body, if you've wondered HOW you can actually practice body love, or if you're struggling to come home to yourself after having babies or any other kind of life change, DO NOT MISS THIS EPISODE! It's one of our all time faves and we just know you'll love it too! This is not a conversation about fitting in, shrinking down, or changing your appearance. This is a conversation about fully inhabiting the body God gave you with confidence, peace, and unflagging joy. Enjoy listening, friends!

This month's behind the scenes episode is a little different from our usual tone, but that's because life as we know it suddenly has a different tone. Alana & I are sharing what life is like over here as we all are experiencing this worldwide event through our own personal lenses. We're sharing what's working for us during this time, what's not working, and what we're loving. We really got vulnerable as well as practical in this episode and we hope that it will help you navigate your own thoughts and feelings today. We're all in this together. Wishing you health and peace, friends!

We'll be the first to admit it: Making new friends as an adult is hard. Heck, simply maintaining old friendships is hard, depending on your season of life. Today we sat down with friendship researcher (Yep! It's a thing!) Noelle Rhodes for an honest, refreshing, and PRACTICAL conversation about the importance of female friendships. If you're struggling to find true connection or you find yourself settling for "virtual friendships" over real-life friendships, you don't want to miss this episode! We talk about why they matter, where to find them, how to create healthy boundaries within friendships, and simple, actionable ways to cultivate them in our right-now life.

Can we be honest? Finding, building, and maintaining healthy and thriving friendships seems a lot harder in adulthood. Can we get an amen? It's not quite as simple as asking someone on the playground if they "wanna be friends?" anymore. But one thing's for sure- whether you're an introvert or extrovert, a mom of littles or an empty nester, we ALL need friendship in our lives. It's a form of human connection, self care, and fun! That said, it's often easier said than done. We get it. If you're feeling frustrated or discouraged by this area of your life, then come close and listen in, sister, because we're getting real about what it takes to create,nurture, and maintain lasting healthy friendships. We're getting down to the nitty-gritty of boundaries, expectations, valuing real life connections instead of settling for "virtual" friendships, and HOW to actually make and keep friends.

Last month on the podcast we explored the theme of Comparison and as we shift gears into this month's theme of Friendship, we can't think of a better transition than THIS week's conversation! Pursuing your passion can feel like lonely work at times but one of the best ways to combat comparison & competition is by finding your people, connecting with them, supporting them, and even collaborating with them. One way to do that is through a mastermind group. We've been blown away by the positive impact this has has in our own lives this year. Curious about what a mastermind is or how it works? Well today we're peeling back the curtain and introducing y'all to the members of our real life mastermind group. We're sharing some basic info on WHAT a mastermind is, how you can run it, and hearing from each of the ladies in our personal mastermind group on how it's impacted their businesses and personal lives.

Well it's been minute since we've recorded a proper behind the scenes episode, but don't worry, we're covering it all in this ep! Alana & Amber each share one thing that's working, one thing that's not working, and one thing they're loving so far in 2020! We're including all the fun links below so you don't have to worry about FOMO, but mostly we just hope these episodes create a bit of space for you to consider what your answers to these questions would be! Plus, we just love to dish. These eps are personal, casual, and a lot of fun. Grab your favorite bevvie and enjoy!

One of the reasons we created this podcast is because we believe that leaning into our God given gifts and strengths truly helps us become better mothers. Today on the podcast we sat down with Becky Keife, author of No Better Mom for the Job to discuss how we can parent with confidence, avoid the pitfalls of comparison, celebrate our individual strengths as as a mom, and both find support and offer support to our fellow moms. Ladies, if you find yourself stuck in negativity, insecurity, or overwhelm, do not miss this one! You are the best mom for this job! Becky Keife is the Community Manager for DaySpring's (in)courage, a widely followed online community where authentic, brave women connect deeply with God and others. She is also a popular speaker for MOPS groups and other women's events, and is the author of the new book, No Better Mom for the Job: Parenting with Confidence (Even When You Don't Feel Cut Out for It.) Becky is a huge fan of Voxer, Sunday naps, and moms in the thick of it. She and her husband live near Los Angeles where they enjoy hiking sunny trails with their three spirited sons.

We've all heard the famous quote, "Comparison is the thief of joy", and today on the podcast we're diving into this uncomfortable topic because as moms and creatives we're deeply aware of how true this statement is. If you're trying to improve your career, your mothering, your wellness, your marriage, your creative work, or just about any other area of your life, there's a good chance that you'll encounter a perceived disparity between your reality and the woman next to you. It's all too tempting to believe that she has it easier, or better, or that her "success" is a threat to your own. The bummer is that when we fall into patterns of comparison or envy, we are the undoing of our own goals and desires. When we're busy obsessing over everyone else, there's not enough time and energy left to actually run in our own lane. In today's episode we're diving into what triggers comparison, what it looks like, simple ways we can actively combat it, and a surprising twist on how we can use it for good. Grab your favorite bevvie and come join us!

We all know that Comparison can be a harmful trap, but unfortunately knowledge alone isn't enough to keep us from encountering it in our everyday lives. Sometimes it may be just far enough under the surface of our conscious mind that we never even notice we're operating from a place of comparison or insecurity. Today we sat down with Richella Parham, author of Mythical Me: Finding Freedom from Constant Comparison to break down different types of comparison (maybe they're not ALL bad?) as well as how we can remove the comparison traps hidden in plain sight among our daily habits.

Today's episode is our fourth and final installment of our Start Your Year off Right mini-series and we are so excited to dive in because this is where the rubber meets the road, y'all! All the reflecting, dreaming, and planning we've done this month has all been leading up to this: actually getting started. We know that starting is often the hardest part so this episode is the perfect mix of gentle encouragement, tough love, and practical help. We're sharing all of our best tips and tools in this episode, so be sure and tune in and then come join us over in the Mom Wants More Podcast Community on Facebook where we can personally cheer you on as you get moving towards your dreams and goals in 2020!

Welcome to Week 3 of our Start Your Year off Right Mini-series! Here on the podcast we're spending the whole month of January focused on stepping into a brand new year (and a new decade!) with intention and joy. We know that expectations and pressure can feel high around this time of year so we've put together a plan to help you ditch overwhelm, get clarity, create a plan, and GET MOVING towards your dreams and goals this year. This week we're building on the last two weeks of reflection and dreaming and we're getting super practical about how to make a plan of action to launch you forward. In today's episode we cover: We've got some great (FREE) resources to help walk you through this process with us so be sure to grab those at HERE.

Welcome back to Week 2 of our Start Your Year off Right Miniseries! We'd like to emphasize that "right" only applies to you and how YOU want to intentionally launch into the new year. Your dreams and goals are going to be just as unique and nuanced as you are so while we know there's no cookie cutter approach to this, we do believe that having a clear understanding of WHAT your dreams and goals are is a crucial and life giving step before moving forward. So this week, for our second installment, we're diving into the importance of dreaming, unpacking any unnecessary guilt around it, and offering you some fun and playful ways you can start dreaming about what you truly want out of 2020. Grab some earbuds and let's do this! Don't forget! We've got some great (FREE) resources to help walk you through this process with us so be sure to grab those here.

Happy New Year! This month we're kicking off a super fun mini-series all about how to Start Your Year off Right. Not only is it the beginning of a fresh new calendar year, but it's also the beginning of a whole new decade! Talk about a clean slate, amirite? Just because January 1st came and went doesn't mean you need to need to have your whole year mapped out. And if you're finding this episode later in the year, just because January came and went doesn't mean you can't start now! You are the boss of your own goals and this doesn't have to look "right" to anyone but you, sister. That said, Alana and I have combined all of our best practices and tips for starting the year off intentionally and we've streamlined them into this super helpful 4 week series for you. We've got some great (FREE) resources to help walk you through this process with us so be sure to grab those at HERE. Week 1 is all about REFLECTING and today we're going to help you take a look at: You ready? Let's dive in!

We are rereleasing this episode as we prepare for our January Mini-Series. We love a clean slate and is there any cleaner of a slate than January 1? The whole year is stretched out before us, full of possibility and good intentions. So naturally everyone and their Aunt Millie is currently setting goals and thinking about how they want to show up in the world this year. Here at Mom Wants More we have some suggestions on how you can practice this gently with yourself. We are all about naming those things we hope for, for calling our shot, and then getting after it. But it can quickly turn into pressure, an "on or off" mentality, or even feeling like a failure by January 11. In today's episode we're highlighting the difference between setting a hard Goal and setting an Intention. We think that when it comes to intentions and mindfulness, the more the merrier, but when it comes to hard goals, less is actually more. We're sharing how this looks in our personal lives and we're offering up some practical and helpful ideas of how you can approach this exercise in your own life. Listen in! And we'd love to hear some of YOUR New Year's goals or intentions! Leave a comment, email us, or send us a private message! We'll show you ours if you show us yours! Thanks for being such a rad community- for tuning in, following along, sharing the podcast with your people, and for basically being the best listeners ever!

We are rereleasing this episode from last year about Choosing a Word of the Year as we lead up to our Mini-Series in January. Some might say it's cliche or even cheesy, but we have all the heart eyes for choosing a Word of the Year. We've both been doing it for years now and we've been surprised at how much this simple practice has impacted our lives. We don't use it as another way to put pressure and expectations on a year that still remains full of mystery and unknown- we use it more as a filter, a gauge, a springboard, and a point of reference throughout the year. A place to come back to and ask ourselves and God how this word is shaping up in our story. Today on the podcast we're sharing a behind the scenes peek into how this process looks for each of us, how it's played out in our lives over the last few years, and some simple tools for how you can implement this practice yourself. Listen in to hear the words we each chose this year! In the meantime, we raise our mug of 3x reheated coffee to you- Cheers here's to a brand new year, full of possibility! P.S. If you already have a word of the year, would you share it with us? Comment here! We'd love to hear! (a tiny poem, by Mom Wants More)

Today's episode is special for 2 reasons: We invited our friend, Megan Ericson to join us today so we could take a turn being on the OTHER side of the mic. Some of our guests wrote in questions for us and Megan hosted so Alana & I could have fun as guests today. Some of the questions were serious, some were fun, and all of them will help you get to know us much better. Enjoy! Here's to 100 more!

The train has left the station y'all! The holiday season is upon us and while it has the potential to be the most warm, fuzzy, magical season of the year, it also has the potential to make us go a little bit crazy. Today we're getting down to the nitty gritty by sharing our own struggles with this season and dishing the simple ways we're learning to prioritize, communicate, and really get intentional about how we want the holiday season to look. We cover all of it, from letting go of the Hallmark Holiday Fantasy, to creating boundaries, speaking up & being clear AHEAD of time, giving grace to ourselves and our people, and focusing in on just 2-3 goals to prioritize for the season. For us those priorities look like: