Trust is the hidden infrastructure underneath every relationship we have: at work, in our marriages, in our friendships, and with ourselves. In this episode of Mighty as a Mother, workplace trust expert and bestselling author Minda Harts walks us through her Seven Trust Languages framework and the real, hidden cost of broken trust for working mothers, including how to rebuild trust at work and at home, how to advocate for what you need, and why self-trust is where it all starts.

What if the thing quietly eroding your closest relationships isn't a trust problem at all, but a communication one?

That's the question Minda kept coming back to, and it reframed this entire conversation for us.

Minda Harts is the creator of the Seven Trust Languages and the author of Talk to Me Nice, The Memo, Right Within, and You Are More Than Magic. She's an adjunct professor at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, the founder of The Memo LLC, and an award-winning filmmaker. LinkedIn named her its number one Top Voice in the Workplace, and Business Insider put her on its list of 100 People Transforming Business. She's helped teams at Nike, Google, Best Buy, and Zoom learn how to actually talk to one another.

We wanted her at our table because trust isn't just a boardroom strategy. It shows up in your Slack messages and your group texts, in the way you ask for help and the way you don't. Minda spent years as "the only" in the room, having panic attacks she couldn't name, before she found the language she was missing. That search became the seven trust languages, and in this episode we widen the lens all the way from the office to the whole of a woman's life.

Together we talk candidly about:

• Why trust rarely breaks in one big act of betrayal, and how it actually erodes in the small, quiet moments we sweep under the rug
• The seven trust languages, and how to identify your primary, secondary, and tertiary
• The stories we invent when we don't have the full picture ("my manager must hate me"), and how one honest conversation can dismantle them
• How to ask your boss for what you need without torching the relationship
• Why "clear is kind," and how your tone can change everything even when the words are identical
• Bringing the trust languages home: keeping your word with your kids, your partner, and your closest friends
• The generational trust gap at work, and why boomers and Gen Z experience the same workplace so differently
• What to do when you don't feel safe enough to even start the conversation
• The single question every leader, partner, and friend should be asking: "What do you need from me?"
• How to rebuild trust once it's fractured, and why demonstration always beats a quick apology

You'll leave this one with language for things you've been feeling but couldn't name, and one small, doable thing you can do today to start repairing a relationship that matters to you.

Links & resources

• Talk to Me Nice: The Seven Trust Languages for a Better Workplace by Minda Harts
• The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table by Minda Harts
• Minda's website: mindaharts.com
• Minda on Instagram: @mindaharts
• Minda on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mindaharts

When was the last time you let yourself fantasize about a different kind of life?

Not a vacation. Not a long weekend. But a real, full-bodied reimagining of your days — one where your kids meet you. Where you meet yourself. Where the pace of life finally matches the pace of your heartbeat.

Elodie Ferchaud did more than fantasize. She built it.

Elodie is the Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Boundless Life — a global community that gives families the tools, the structure, and the community to live, work, and learn across some of the most beautiful destinations on earth. After 15 years building brands at L'Oréal and Procter & Gamble, living what looked like a successful international life, Elodie took a sabbatical that changed everything. What started as a deeply personal decision to slow down became a movement. Today, Boundless has welcomed more than 5,000 participants from over 50 countries across 8 destinations worldwide — Sintra, Portugal; Syros, Greece; Tuscany, Italy; Sanur, Bali; Kotor, Montenegro; Estepona, Spain; La Barra, Uruguay; and Kamakura, Japan.

What makes Elodie's story so resonant for ambitious mothers isn't the travel. It's the truth underneath it: that the model of success we've been handed often doesn't fit the life we actually want. And that the hardest part of changing isn't logistics — it's letting go of external validation long enough to trust your gut.

A French mother of four, raised by educators, Elodie co-founded Boundless Life alongside Mauro Repacci and Rekha Magon after first joining as a participating family herself. She knows this life from the inside out — the fear, the freedom, and everything in between.

Together we talk candidly about:

• What life looked like before Boundless — the commutes, the missed school concerts, the feeling of being in the wheel with no exit

• Why she took a sabbatical that terrified her, and what she discovered on the other side

• The Gallup data showing that roughly 40% of American women ages 15 to 44 want to leave the US permanently — nearly double the rate of all US adults

• What slow travel actually feels like on the ground: walkable cities, spontaneous mornings, bumping into neighbors you know in the middle of Greece

• The Boundless program structure — from 3-week summer programs to 3-month academic cohorts to full 9-month stays

• Why kids don't need more toys — they need community and unstructured space to discover the world

• The mother who, at the end of her Tuscany cohort, said for the first time: "My kids got to meet their mother"

• How sibling bonds deepen through shared adventure and shared hardship

• The internal and external resistance Elodie faced — including her own father, a lifelong educator, who still struggles to accept the path she chose

• What she would tell any woman who feels trapped by the pace of her life but can't see a clear exit

What you'll walk away with:

Permission. Not the kind anyone else can give you — the kind that comes from hearing a woman who built something real say: you can always come back. The grind will wait. The life you're dreaming of? It won't.

Links & Resources:

• Boundless Life website: boundless.life

• Boundless Life on Instagram: @boundlesslife

• Boundless Life on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/boundlesslife

• Elodie Ferchaud on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/elodieferchaud

• Explore Boundless Life 4-Week Summer Programs: boundless.life/4-week-getaway

MAAM Links:

• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mighty-as-a-mother/id1687678053

• Read more at Substack: https://mightyasamother.substack.com

• Shop our favorites: https://shopmy.us/shop/mightyasamotherpodcast

In this episode of Mighty as a Mother, we sit down with Shasta Nelson — friendship researcher, bestselling author, and one of the leading experts on adult female friendship and loneliness — to talk about why so many women feel disconnected even in their fullest lives, and what it actually takes to build the kind of close female friendships that sustain us.

There's a kind of loneliness that doesn't look the way we picture it. It's not the woman alone in a dark apartment. It's the one running carpool, answering emails, texting a dozen people, and still going to bed feeling unseen. It's the mom surrounded by her kids, her colleagues, her neighborhood — and somehow starving for real connection.

If that sounds familiar, this episode is for you.

For more than 15 years, Shasta Nelson has studied how adults form and maintain friendships — what makes closeness thrive and why so many women feel deeply disconnected even in their fullest lives. She is the author of three acclaimed books on female friendship, a two-time TEDx speaker, and the former Chief Friendship Officer of the US Chamber of Connections. Her work blends research with lived experience, making the science of female friendship feel not just meaningful — but urgent.

In this conversation, we explore why women's loneliness is so misunderstood, what close friendships actually require, and how to build the kind of relationships that carry us through every season — especially the hard ones.

• Why up to 60% of people report feeling lonely regularly — and why the loneliest women are often the most socially connected

• What loneliness actually is (it's a biological signal, not a personal failing — and the shame around it is making the female friendship crisis worse)

• The 200-hour friendship rule: why it takes 200 hours to build a best friendship as an adult — and what to do with that number

• Shasta's Frientimacy Triangle — the three requirements every healthy female friendship needs: Positivity, Consistency, and Vulnerability

• How to diagnose which element of deep female friendship is missing in your closest relationships right now

• Why most adult friendships die when the "container" changes (the job, the school, the neighborhood) — and how to prevent it

• How to ask for more from a friendship — more honesty, support, or reciprocity — without making it awkward

• What modeling female friendship in front of your kids actually does for them — and why most of us are doing it in hiding

Shasta Nelson is one of the leading experts on female friendship and adult loneliness. She is the author of Frientimacy: How to Deepen Friendships for Lifelong Health and Happiness, Friendships Don't Just Happen, and The Business of Friendship, and has spoken at TEDx, corporations, and women's organizations worldwide. She is the former Chief Friendship Officer of the US Chamber of Connections and the founder of GirlFriendCircles.com — one of the first friendship-matching platforms for adult women.

• Shasta Nelson's website: www.shastanelson.com

• Shasta on Instagram: @shastanelson

• Shasta on LinkedIn: Shasta Nelson

• Books by Shasta Nelson:

• • Frientimacy: How to Deepen Friendships for Lifelong Health and Happiness

  • Friendships Don't Just Happen

  • The Business of Friendship

• Previous MAAM episode on female friendship: Anna Goldfarb on friendship

For more research-informed conversations on female friendship, motherhood, ambition, and wellness, subscribe to Mighty as a Mother: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Substack

If you have ever crossed your legs before you sneezed, skipped a workout because something felt off, experienced pain during sex and assumed it was just part of life — this episode is for you.

Jenn and Laura sit down with Dr. Allea Francis, pelvic floor physical therapist and co-founder of Tonic and Phasic in Costa Mesa, California, for a conversation that is long overdue on this show. This is a topic that touches nearly every woman — and almost nobody is talking about it honestly.

Dr. Allea shares her own decade-long journey with chronic pelvic pain before discovering pelvic floor physical therapy — a field she has now dedicated her career to. Jenn opens up about seeing Dr. Allea as a patient herself: what began as debilitating back pain she was convinced required a neurologist turned out to be a pelvic floor issue. One session brought relief she hadn't felt in over a year.

This conversation covers the pelvic floor in full — anatomy, symptoms, hormonal connections, and the exercises that actually help. Whether you have classic symptoms or none at all, you will leave this episode understanding your body in a way you likely never have before.

• What the pelvic floor actually is — and why it is so much more than Kegels

• The full range of symptoms that indicate a pelvic floor issue (many will surprise you)

• Why back pain, hip pain, and sciatic pain can all be pelvic floor problems in disguise

• How leakage is common — but not inevitable — and what you can do about it

• How hormones across every life stage (pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause, menopause) directly affect pelvic health

• Why strength training and flexibility are equally important — and which muscles most moms are unknowingly neglecting

• What to expect at your first pelvic floor PT appointment

• How to find a qualified pelvic floor physical therapist near you

• Why it is never too late to address pelvic health — even in your 80s

• The specific blood work Dr. Allea recommends and why timing in your cycle matters

• Tonic and Phasic — Practice Website

Costa Mesa, California | Also offering virtual appointments

Dr. Allea recommended these two accredited directories:

• PelvicRehab.com — Practitioner Directory

• Pelvic Guru — Practitioner Directory

• Dr. Stacy Sims — Roar (Book)

• Dr. Stacy Sims — Next Level (Book)

• Function Health — Comprehensive Lab Testing

• Substack — mightyasamother.substack.com

• Instagram — @mightyasamotherpodcast

• Apple Podcasts — Mighty as a Mother

• Spotify — Mighty as a Mother

What if healing wasn't about doing more, but about listening more closely to what your body has been trying to say all along?

In this episode, we sit down with Nicole Lange, founder of Life Healing Life, acupuncturist, and women's health practitioner, for a deeply grounding conversation about fertility, trauma, nervous system regulation, and what truly holistic care can look like.

Nicole originally thought she'd become a geneticist, studying the smallest units of human life. But after surviving profound personal trauma, her path shifted toward Chinese medicine, where she found a more expansive understanding of healing — one that honors the connection between mind, body, grief, stress, identity, and the stories we carry.

With more than 20 years of experience supporting women through infertility, pregnancy loss, IVF, perimenopause, and major life transitions, Nicole brings both science and soul to this conversation. She's also refreshingly honest about the kind of care women actually deserve: care that is personal, patient-centered, trauma-informed, and never one-size-fits-all.

Together, we talk candidly about:

• How chronic stress, grief, and unresolved trauma can leave women feeling dysregulated in their bodies
• Why so many women turn to acupuncture in moments of crisis — and what it can offer far beyond fertility support
• The connection between nervous system regulation, emotional health, and reproductive health
• What Chinese medicine understands about the mind-body connection that modern healthcare is finally catching up to
• How "doing everything right" can sometimes keep us further from the healing we actually need
• What acupuncture is really like if you've never tried it — and why it may be more supportive than you expect
• Why healing isn't about fixing yourself or forcing positivity, but learning how to honestly relate to what you're carrying
• How modeling real emotion for our children can become part of our own healing too

This one is for the woman who feels stretched thin, emotionally flooded, physically depleted, or just plain off — and can't quite explain why. Nicole reminds us that dysregulation isn't a personal failure. It's often a signal. And getting grounded again may have less to do with pushing harder and more to do with feeling safe enough to soften.

Links & Resources
👉 Nicole Lange / Life Healing Life: https://www.lifehealinglife.com/
👉 Previous episode with Molly Dickinson / The Maternal Stress Project: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e25-exploring-the-stress-of-modern-american/id1687678053?i=1000651881093

For more honest motherhood conversation, subscribe to Mighty as a Mother on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen — and follow along on Instagram @mightyasamotherpodcast, LinkedIn and Substack

Follow along on our new Substack here: https://mightyasamother.substack.com/

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Mary Claire Haver — board-certified OB-GYN, certified menopause practitioner, founder of The Pause Life and Mary Claire Wellness, and one of the leading voices changing the conversation around perimenopause and menopause for women everywhere. Her bestselling book The New Menopause and upcoming book The New Perimenopause are helping women better understand what's happening in their bodies long before that one official day called menopause arrives.

Together, we unpack what perimenopause actually is, why it can begin earlier than many women expect, and how symptoms like sleep disruption, anxiety, brain fog, weight changes, palpitations, and feeling unlike yourself are too often dismissed as stress, motherhood, or burnout.

We also talk about the overlap between postpartum and perimenopause, why so many women spend months or years searching for answers, and what it looks like to advocate for yourself when your body is waving a flag and no one seems to be listening.

This is a conversation every woman needs — not just the ones having hot flashes. Because for many of us, this story starts much earlier, much quieter, and with symptoms we were never taught to connect to hormones in the first place.

Together, we talk candidly about:

• What perimenopause is — and why it's not the same thing as menopause

• Why women in their late 30s and early 40s may already be experiencing symptoms

• The overlap between postpartum, fertility journeys, and perimenopause

• Why so many women say, "I just don't feel like myself"

• The symptoms clinicians often miss, from sleep issues and anxiety to joint pain and dizziness

• How to advocate for yourself when your concerns are dismissed

• What hormone therapy actually is, and why fear around it has kept too many women from getting support

• The health habits that matter most for long-term strength, bone health, heart health, and aging well

• Why community, education, and honest conversations with other women matter so much in this season

Dr. Haver also shares her own evolution — from longtime OB-GYN in academic medicine to building a menopause-focused practice and global platform that is helping women feel seen, believed, and better equipped to care for themselves. She also discusses her work with Midi Health, a virtual care platform focused on menopause and midlife care.

This one is for the woman lying awake at 3:17 a.m., wondering why she can't sleep.
For the woman who feels foggy, anxious, inflamed, or off — and keeps getting told it's just stress.
For the woman trying to mother, lead, work, and hold it all together while quietly wondering what the hell is happening to her body.

You are not imagining it. And you are definitely not alone.

Links & Resources
👉 The New Menopause by Dr. Mary Claire Haver
👉 The New Perimenopause by Dr. Mary Claire Haver
👉 Mary Claire Wellness / The Pause Life (The 'Pause Wellness)
👉 Find a certified menopause practitioner through The Menopause Society (Menopause Practitioner)
👉 Learn more about Midi Health (Join Midi)
👉 Dr. Haver's Diary of a CEO conversation on menopause (YouTube)

For more honest motherhood conversation, subscribe to Mighty as a Mother on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen — and follow along on Instagram, LinkedIn and Substack.

In a world where boys are told to "toughen up" before they even understand what they're feeling, how do we raise sons who stay connected to their hearts?

In this episode, we sit down with writer, editor, and media critic Joanna Schroeder to talk about what it really means to raise emotionally healthy boys today. Not perfect boys. Not "alpha" boys. Not fragile boys. But boys who can feel.

Together, we unpack what's often called the "boy crisis" — and move beyond headlines to the real, lived experiences happening in our homes. From emotional suppression to loneliness, from screen time to algorithm-driven messaging, we explore the cultural forces shaping our sons — and what we can actually do about it as parents.

This conversation isn't about fear. It's about awareness. And responsibility. And repair.

We talk candidly about:

• Why boys' mental health deserves our attention — without ignoring the bigger picture

• The subtle ways society teaches boys to disconnect from their emotions

• How to help boys regulate anger without shaming their feelings

• What emotional safety at home actually looks like (especially when we're dysregulated ourselves)

• How social media and online content shape boys' identity earlier than we think

• Practical boundaries around screen time, smartphones, and tech in the bedroom

• Why repair matters more than perfection in parenting

• How to raise boys who are both strong and soft

One of our favorite takeaways? You don't have to protect your son from the world entirely. But you can make your home the safest place for him to land.

This episode is for the moms raising sons. For the parents trying to break cycles. For anyone who has ever been told to "stop crying" and is determined to do it differently.

The goal isn't to raise boys who never struggle.

It's to raise boys who know they don't have to struggle alone.

Links & Resources
👉 Joanna's book Talk to Your Boys: 16 Conversations to Help Tweens and Teens Grow into Confident, Caring Young Men
👉 Talk To Your Boys website
👉 Joanna on Instagram
👉 2024 Recap Episode (where we talk about trying to do it all)

For more honest motherhood conversation, subscribe to Mighty as a Mother on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen — and follow along on Instagram @mightyasamotherpodcast.