Mama Outspoken: How One Woman Turned Postpartum Struggle into a Lifeline for Others

Motherhood and entrepreneurship have each been romanticized in glossy posts and highlight reels, yet the lived reality sits closer to grit than glamour. This conversation traces the season when both arrived at once: a first baby and a first business, born in the turbulence of a global pandemic. Instead of waiting for the perfect moment, our guest chose to create one, building Mama Outspoken as a lifeline for mothers navigating postpartum anxiety, depression, rage, and the fog that makes even simple tasks feel impossible. The story reaches beyond inspiration into practical detail: how to seek help without shame, how to name intrusive thoughts, and how honest storytelling becomes a bridge for others who feel alone. It redefines “strong” not as stoic endurance but as the courage to ask for help, to share, and to try again.

The entrepreneurial arc here starts with a clear why: protecting time with a newborn and avoiding a paycheck that would vanish into childcare costs. The pivot began with virtual assistant work, packaging existing skills into a flexible, client‑controlled model. From there, the mission sharpened—support doulas, wellness providers, and mothers directly—until the work could no longer be just behind the scenes. A podcast emerged as a way to process the postpartum experience in real time, then a book, then a village, each step widening the circle for maternal mental health advocacy. The lesson is simple and profound: momentum grows when you serve the person you once were, and sustainability comes from aligning work with lived experience, not with external expectations.

Day‑to‑day, sustainable growth demands boundaries that breathe. Newborns do not honor calendars, and neither does creative energy under sleep deprivation. The practice is to prioritize by season: scale client load, shift to nap‑time sprints, mirror a school calendar, and normalize summer slowdowns. Simple systems matter more than perfect systems; one standout tactic is “sticky note time,” a visual method to dump tasks from head to paper, cluster by priority, and calendar by week or month. This lowers cognitive load, relieves anxiety, and replaces the pressure of a bottomless list with the satisfaction of tangible progress. The jar of completed notes becomes a quiet record of wins, which is vital when self‑doubt and fatigue erase memory of progress.

The emotional landscape is just as central. Resentment, guilt, and the urge to “clock out” from motherhood for a day are not moral failures; they are signals to recalibrate care and community. By treating play as self‑care—joining a child on the floor or in the grass—moms can reclaim presence without adding another task to the list. The episode invites mothers to adopt the mantra you are the mom you were intended to be, a counterweight to idealized images that equate perfection with love. Naming hard truths, including postpartum rage and intrusive thoughts, dissolves shame and invites timely intervention. Strength is reframed as the willingness to be seen when life is messy, to accept help, and to choose rest as a strategy, not a setback.

For founders, the guidance lands with clarity: start simple, test fast, and let reality teach. When fear blocks action and perfection delays launch, use the easy button—shorter episodes, fewer clients, smaller offers—to build capacity without burning out. Sustainable growth is grace in action: choosing rest when the body asks, choosing focus when energy allows, and trusting that consistent, humane effort compounds. The takeaway resonates for moms and makers alike: your hardest season can be your teacher and your calling, and when you speak your truth, you build a path others can walk with less fear and more support.

Listen to the rest of the podcast  with Jill Olish HERE

@mamaoutspoken