Episode #40: Ending the Career Plateau after Motherhood with Erin Smith and Saphina Waters, Founders, Communicators, Entrepreneurs & Artists Artwork

The Working Mother Experience

It's The Working Mother Experience podcast. Weekly, we will alternate between interviewing the artists (it could be you) and discussing hot topics related to working and mothering. We promise, it will lift your spirits, make you laugh and think, and deeply connect you to your experience and the experience of other working mothers. The Working Mother Experience inspires ambitious women to honestly and creatively share what it means to work and mother. Our goal is to collect and compile 250 pieces of individual art, painted by working mothers around the globe, to showcase the richness and diversity of what it means to mother and work.

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The Working Mother Experience

Episode #40: Ending the Career Plateau after Motherhood with Erin Smith and Saphina Waters, Founders, Communicators, Entrepreneurs & Artists

January 16, 2024 • Working Mother Experience

Today on the podcast we meet Erin Smith and Saphina Waters, co-founders of The Debut Collective, an organization dedicated to supporting working mothers thrive after having children and returning to the workplace. They offer a variety of unique programs and services to help mothers connect with and celebrate their new identity - we highly recommend you check them out!

We discuss that each return to work can be different; different emotions, different return structures, and different experiences depending on the workplace and the people supporting that return. We discuss how each mother wants something different and the importance of the leader in supporting this journey, as best they and the organization can.

We discuss the process of creating art and how each of us arrives at our art piece in different ways; Erin didn't know where her piece was going, but she trusted the process and understood the story after it was painted. Saphina is still on her painting journey as she scours her house for the unfinished piece (to be fair she moved while in the process of painting). We celebrate that each of us moves through this painting journey in their own unique way, much like motherhood.

We cover so much ground in this discussion from our unique experiences to motherhood, return to work, painting journey and the general experience of existing in this world as a working parent.

Thank you, Erin and Saphina, for your support and willingness to share your story through art.

Check them out --> https://thedebutco.com/