On this episode, Indie chats with Katya Libin, Co-Founder of HeyMama - a network that brings together working mothers — entrepreneurs, advisors, executives, founders, builders, and makers of all kinds — to provide each other with support, connection, and collaboration at every stage of life and career.
Indie and Katya discuss empowering moms in the workplace, the power of community and the importance of taking care of yourself first.
Links
On this episode, Indie chats with Katya Libin, Co-Founder of HeyMama - a network that brings together working mothers — entrepreneurs, advisors, executives, founders, builders, and makers of all kinds — to provide each other with support, connection, and collaboration at every stage of life and career.
Indie and Katya discuss empowering moms in the workplace, the power of community and the importance of taking care of yourself first.
Links
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to coming clean with indie Li a podcast series about living with purpose, passion and being fully present. I am your host, indie Lee. And today Yes, I get to sit down with Patti Lubin who is one of the cofounders of Hey Mama, which is this redonkulous powerful network of other moms who are also entrepreneurs who are trying to figure out how to kind of Thank you so much, Cindy, I am really excited to be here. And I'm going to add redonkulous to our official website language, right? That's just an underutilized word. Agree. I mean, we have to have more fun in our language. And it doesn't have to be I mean, you know, me, I'm not this straight laced person. I really believe in having fun and living boldly and passionately and not taking myself too seriously. So that's what I love. And everybody's like, in, okay, where are you gonna go. But with all the podcasts, it really is about. For me, it's about amplifying other I would love to do so a bit more about me. I'm actually an immigrant. to the US. My family came here when I was three years old from Russia. We came over with about $80 per person, no language. We moved to Flatbush, Brooklyn and to the projects there, which hilariously, my parents thought was amazing. Because coming from communist Russia, it was actually a better in some ways, like living because I you know, I didn't have an Ivy League background. It was really like a very competitive job market at that time. And I started working there and ended up finding a lot of success because I just never stopped, literally never stopped working, which probably wasn't the best for balance. So I've learned a lot about balance since then. But I also just love working with people and, you know, And I think that's pretty common. And that Yeah, when I start always start the conversation people I, I believe there is that always that common denominator, there's either a passion or pain point that people come into an age, usually an event, or series of a few events, that they realized that that is their purpose. And for you, it sounds like having your daughter, you know, having the kids Absolutely. And I was so surprised by how isolated I felt when I was a new mom, I just never really saw that part of it coming. And I think a lot of women can resonate with this, we are just made, I think, to gather and to be in communities. And we're living in a time when we're not born into our communities. Really, we're kind of born outside of them, and we have to go and find them. And so some I there's no doubt is what you you guys have created. Um, I remember after having my son, and working at HBO, I had no idea how to do this, like, What does re entry look like? Is this normal that these expectations? Am I alone, it's you know, you have that first of all, you have the postpartum and you have the post partum, the emotional hormone, all those things that can go along with it, and Thank you for saying that. I mean, it's it's literally what lights us up every day is thinking about, you know, how do we help this community of women who we see are just such incredible leaders and that we see that moms are such incredible leaders, and that motherhood is this training ground for leadership, right? Like, moms bring out the best in their employees, and they're better listeners, been? You know, we didn't talk about this before, but how have you seen COVID impact this because so many, you know, moms have these young young children at home who have now had to homeschool. And I mean, I can tell you, my son from college came home, because they basically shut down. So he came home, my senior in high school who was a junior than, you know, was working, you know, schooling from Yeah, it's been so life changing in all ways, right? Every part of our lives has shifted, a lot of the things that we would rely upon were completely taken away, you know, support structures, sending your kids to school, so you could go to work has completely shifted, and now we're moving in this almost fully remote workforce. And as things opened up, we'll start to see some shifts. But I think you think the most common pain point is that you're seeing now? for working moms? I mean, you have your finger on the pulse of it. As Leo, leading this organization, what what what are you seeing is the most common across? Yeah, I think it's important to note that like working moms aren't a monolith. So there's so many different types of experiences. And black and brown moms are facing, you know, even more job loss, and everyone's situation is different. But what I think we can all universally agree on is that having things like universal childcare, for example, 12 weeks of paid maternity leave, for that. I love that instead of thinking of it as a negative, let's talk about the positive, absolutely. Positive, you know, it is Oh, my God, it's not treated that way. Right. So 33% of working mothers have been passed over for a promotion or reporting assignment because they have children. So of course, you know, we believe that motherhood belongs on the resume, because we have to tear down this cultural bias against mothers, that's impacting their careers and really recognize is incredible. I look back and you know, I said, Okay, well, you know, I was given the opportunity to work at home and transition back into when I worked over at HBO, and that was a very progressive company. So I mean, I'm very, very fortunate. But I remember leaving and working for another firm, and I had to leave because my son needed me. And there was no way to balance it. And so I had a And that's a testament to you. Indeed, you know, I think that's a testament to women leadership. I'm not saying that men can't have that level of compassion and policy. Not only can they I'm sure there are many of them that do, in fact, have that same value system. But I do think that once you're in that role as a mother, and you have these beings that are so dependent on you, plus, you're so hard, because mothers are asked to trade their resume for their family, right? So I don't know if what it's like Now, obviously, because I went to them becoming a founder, but it was sort of like if I left that world, that was it. I was losing my family. And I was losing that. What's that gap on your resume, and it was seen as a negative. And so you were starting again, I have I have people Absolutely. You know, it's like meet the chief people Officer of your house, the Chief Financial Officer, moms are pretty much deciding on so many of the purchases within a within their household. I think they do. There's a lot of skills that are transferable. Absolutely. That's part of what our goal is with the campaign is to really give women more of those tools to think about how they're So that's a perfect segue into what resources does Hey, Mama, you know, provide to support moms in this case. Yeah, so every member that joins Hey, Mama, and you can apply on our website ends up receiving kind of a core number of benefits that we provide through the community, right. So we always say that you're going places, but you're really you're not going there alone. So what we see first and foremost is just access to a highly vetted digital community of women. It's also in person once we come mean, so much I gained from the it was really a symbiotic relationship, I gained so much from these incredible women in terms of their stories. It was just I think it was an incredible experience for me and one, listen, sign me up anytime you want me to be a part of it, because I loved it. It's such a rewarding experience. And I think, you know, we, we can all learn so much from each other. So I think day to day just even within Hey, Mama, all the questions that get asked and responded to so like our conversations platform of just, you know, hey, I need anything under the sun. I need, you know, advice about my kid and what they're doing to a manufacturer to want to get my I love it. I love it. Like, you know, you have the insert of and what is so amazing is when someone says they need something, even if I don't need something, just seeing the emails of women helping and empowering and supporting other women throughout the day, when I see these email trends Go on, that lifts you up, because you're like, yes, you're not alone. You're not alone, just watching the I love it. People out there just crushing it, you know, trying and working and dreaming to beautiful, it's incredible. So what struck me is really how tight the community is dispatch, despite the lack of the in person events right now. Whether it's like you have obviously the Slack channel to reach out to each other's shout outs to the community as we're talking about when you have wins. It's like this incredible force that helps other women go through their day right? What's so interesting for me is that I've been for it. Thank you Andy so much. Honestly, I wish I could tell you that it gets old but it never does. Because you any business owner, any person loves feeling appreciated. But I think especially entrepreneurs and you know this, and I'm sure some of your listeners that are building companies. There's so much that goes into building a successful business and just knowing that it's making an Absolutely Listen, it takes a village like and you're creating, you know, it's true. But listen, I always laughed at they creates a village and you know when at first when I first started hearing it, and when you start to really think about it, it is the it is so true in so many different facets of our life. But this is a village that you're creating, but you're just not create, you're now think how, yes, feel so good. It feels good to give help. I think we've normalized also woman asking for help and not feeling like they need to have all the answers you know. So it's it's, it's a return on energy. It's a very dynamic experience, right? You're not buying a dress, you could go spend $350 on a dress and wear it a couple times a season. And that's great. That's a great investment Oh the payback is is just an I hate to use that language because it sounds financial but the the racism, the giving, right, we've always you and I've had this conversation but then your cup runneth over when you do those things. And I want to tell you personally, for anybody listening, I'm hoping a lot of people are listening or watching. I mean, I've come to you personally and said, I need with you. I agree with you on that, indeed, it's so rewarding to, to have that kind of reciprocity, that intention and reciprocity. And something that came to me while you were talking is like giving moms and women the permission to invest in themselves and to put themselves first and to put this is a place that they Mama, you know what, yes, you can come with anything that you're dealing with. just it. What Hey, mom ever realized isn't just professional. It's also personal. I've met friends, talking to one now. But truly, as a result of this community, I'm meeting so many incredible like minded individuals, that you feel a part of something bigger than who you are. So what is next for you if you can share, like what's next for Hey, Mom, I like what do you see is happening next? I Yeah, no, I love that question. What's next for us, I believe is really pivoting to be a tech company. Because we started as an offline events business, right? No, I don't know that people realize that I should mention it. You did it started like as events so like, community, like, Hey, we're going to get moms together here, then we're going to get them together in other cities like very much at the foundation. There's no shortcuts for building community, you actually have to like do a lot of the groundwork and meet and get people together. We didn't just put up a site and say, Hey, everyone come to our digital community. I mean, I don't know if you know how I first learned about Hey, Mama. It wasn't it wasn't even invented here. It was Natalie ruling said, oh, there's this great community. It's called Hey, Mama, and I rolled my eyes. I'm like what, and it was in the Denver area. And she's like, you should see about what they have going on your you. That's how I heard about it, Mama, for the first time through a That's amazing. Go Denver's such a great market, we have 11 chapters. Now we're expanding to several more Boston's Next on the list. We're gonna get to Nashville and Atlanta, definitely Texas. In 2022, I think we'll probably end up going internationally, we'll probably try London, but pivoting to a tech company. And by that, I mean, we're always a community first, but at least having tech that No, and I think by going and doing the tech side, it also allows you to open up to all communities and gives everybody that access that they need and it's not contained to where can we start a chapter it's, it's global. Absolutely. Okay, so my final question and I asked everybody this but like, okay, you're running in this business that is expanding your mom on top of that, right? You're an For you? Yeah, that's a great question. Well, Well, for starters, I'll say that I'm fortunate to be one of the people that gets energy from others. So if there's like, if I felt depleted after all of my interactions with people that I probably wouldn't have been building a community, I'm just so energized and inspired by this, by our conversations by being able to be there for you is really a joy you can fill out your application, it typically takes about a couple of weeks for us to review it. You could find me personally on Instagram, I'm at kotzias life. And yeah, that's probably the best way a mama's Instagram is Hey, Mama Ko. And I'd love to love to hear from some of your followers because I'm sure that they're drawn to you for a reason. And I know that if they're drawn to you, then I have no doubt. But remember, she's mine first everything I did. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you carving out time for this today. And I'm really excited for our listeners and viewers to check out Hey, Mama, I cannot stress how valuable it has been to me as a resource as both a professional and as a mom. And as a friend and the people who I've met and the events I mean I cannot wait