Fired at 8 months pregnant with Beth Wanner of Mother Cover

Ep. 85: You read that right.

I sat down with Beth Wanner, founder and CEO of Mother Cover, to talk about the real (and raw) story behind her company—one that includes IVF, two layoffs, workplace discrimination, and a fire in her belly to build something better for parents in the workplace.

You’ll hear:

• 
  
• A story that you didn't think possible because of "legal rights" as a pregnant person
• 
  
• The birth of Mother Cover and what it does differently
• 
  
• Her advice for navigating job interviews, layoffs, and career gaps as a parent

FULL SHOW NOTES & TAKEAWAYS 

Related episodes:

Ep. 3: How I figured out how to change careers in my 20s and 30s – Spotify or Apple

Ep. 15: How my coach helped me figure out my maternity leave plan – Spotify or Apple

About the guest: Beth is the founder and CEO of Mother Cover, an agency offering interim and fractional coverage for parental and other forms of leave.

Beth founded Mother Cover to give individuals the ability to comfortably pause work when they need to, while providing companies with experienced support until their team member returns. Mother Cover offers the long overdue solution to a common challenge that’s been in desperate need of a new approach.

Learn more about Mother Cover here, follow along on IG here and connect with Beth on LinkedIn here and Mother Cover on LinkedIn here.

About Andrea Barr, host of All Figured Out: Andrea Barr is a certified career and life coach who helps ambitious parents take charge of their careers and lives with strategy, intention, and freedom. She rejects the idea that success requires sacrifice—showing parents how to create more time, flexibility, and fulfillment without burnout. Through her coaching, workshops, and podcast, All Figured Out, Andrea shares the strategies and mindset shifts parents need to design careers that fit their lives—so they can thrive at work and at home.

Connect with Andrea via Instagram here or her website here.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome back to the All Figured Out podcast.
I'm your host Andrea Barr. Today we are diving into a
conversation that so many working parents will relate to
navigating career uncertainty, dealing with parental leaves and
the emotional toll of trying to balance all of it.
So my guess is Beth Wanner. She knows the struggle first

(00:23):
hand and she has an absolutely wild story.
As she says, and I quote her, this is insane.
It is an insane story. So after building a really
successful career as a marketingexecutive, Beth faced challenges
in fertility and job insecurity and suddenly being laid off
while finally figuring out she was pregnant.
I don't want to give too much ofthe story away because Beth does

(00:45):
such a great job at at describing what happened, but
when she finally became pregnant, she then went through
a roller coaster of challenges in finding and integrating into
a new organization while pregnant.
Her experience has really shone a light on their gaps in the
workforce for supporting parentsand she has decided to do

(01:06):
something about it. So she is the founder and CEO of
Mother Cover, a game changing agency that provides interim and
fractional coverage for parentalleave.
Just ensuring so that parents can step away from work without
fear of being replaced or like their teams are going to suffer.
And it also supports those who are looking for more fractional
style, flexible work, which is also incredible, and which

(01:29):
covers off of a lot of parents who are in the workforce who
just can't swing it to do the 9:00 to 5:00, Monday to Friday
thing. So it's really, really
incredible. In this episode, Beth shares her
deeply personal journey. She talks about the stigma
surrounding maternity leave and why it's important that we start
to rethink how we support working parents.
If you're ever worried about howyour career fits in with your

(01:50):
family plans, this episode is for you to grab a coffee and
just settle in for an absolutelywild story.
Thank you so much, Beth, for your vulnerability and for
sharing your experience and whatyou are doing about it now.
It's an incredible organization that Beth has started, so enjoy.

(02:11):
You're listening to the All Figured Out podcast.
I'm your host, Andrea Barr. I'm a career coach for parents,
mom of two, and a self-proclaimed expert at
winging it. After 10 years in the corporate
world, two major career pivots, and navigating life with kids,
I've learned one thing. No parent has it all figured
out, and that's OK. Here, we're all about growing

(02:34):
personally and professionally while keeping family time
sacred. You'll get practical tips,
career strategies and musings onlife, plus guest experts to help
us fill in the gaps. So grab a coffee or hide in your
car for some time. We're about to figure out this
work life and parenting stuff out together that water.

(02:55):
Thank you so much for joining meon the All Figured Out podcast.
I'm so pumped to have you here. I'm so pumped to be here.
Thank you for having me. Oh my goodness.
OK. Ever since we connected through
our friend Marty sat Marty tomorrow they shout out to
Marty. He put us in touch and said you
guys really need to chat. And I was like, oh, that's nice,
like any friend of Marty's friend of mine.

(03:16):
But then we met and I was like, Oh my gosh, this was like the
best cold in like the best meat cute best like what's, what's
the word blind date? Yeah, yeah.
Now we have to tell Marty that we're better friends and he's.
Yeah. Well, it's from those situations
where people put you in touch and you're like, yeah, yeah,
like that was really nice. And like we kind of did the same

(03:37):
thing or like we're in the same sphere.
But I'm like, man, this is, thisis great.
And anyways, we won't keep people in the dark as to why
we're going to tell your story and people will be like, oh,
damn, yes. What a great, what a great
pairing. What a great connection.
So Beth, you have, you got a story, You've got quite a story.
I've got a roller coaster, yeah.You caught a roller coaster and

(04:00):
we're coming at this. So I usually in the back end, I
categorize my podcast episodes as either career story.
So people who are say like still, you know, gainfully
employed or whatever and just doing their thing.
They're really good at what theydo and they just have an
interesting story to tell. Or someone who's a guest expert
who can come and like fill in the gaps for us and teach us,
you know, a thing or two. Whatever You fall under that
category of, I would say both, which is always fun.

(04:22):
Or you've got a wild story, a really cool story of becoming a
mother, of going through an experience that was not
favorable, Yeah, to say the least.
And how that inspired you to do the work that you're doing now.
And now as an expert in advocateand a really interesting space

(04:43):
of maternity leave, parental leave, leaves in general and
supporting mothers and work. So I'm man, I'm so excited for
this. So how do we even begin?
Where would you like to start? Do you want to talk about where
you were born? What you like to eat when you
grew up. Oh, man, does anyone want to
like, just does that what peoplewant?

(05:05):
Well, yeah. Nachos, Nachos.
OK. OK, so the main source of
sustenance. So what I want to know is what
was the journey to going from being a really high, high
achieving, successful woman in business person in business to
deciding that you wanted to, youknow, start a family and all of

(05:28):
that. So where were you in your life
at that time when you were starting to think about maybe
having a family? I think it was always in the
back of my mind. I, I am somebody who has always
been ambitious and career drivenand I, it was always kind of a
source of stress of like, where is this going to fit into my

(05:49):
life? Do I want to become a mother?
I, I, I like to kind of preface that I wasn't somebody who
always knew for sure that I wanted to be a mother in that
kind of also added to my anxietyof like, where, where does this
fit into my life? And does it and that pressure of
like that is what what we're supposed to kind of do next.
But yeah, I, I was fortunate to be in positions where my career

(06:13):
kept escalating, which was was great, but that always kind of
pushed out that decision even further because I was like,
well, now I just became a director and now I just became a
VP. And now I'm, I'm leading this
team like it's not the right time.
And I worked in in tech, so a lot can happen in tech and move

(06:34):
so quickly. So the thought of taking leave,
what you're just like, I don't know what I would possibly come
back to and I need to stay connected and, and just kind of
navigating how that would work. But eventually, kind of after
going through a few promotions and again, being very fortunate
and loving my career, we eventually got to the position.

(06:56):
We're like, yeah, we we want to do this.
And there's never going to be a great time, but I really just
wanted to know who this little combination of myself and my
husband, us and my husband is amazing.
And I, I wanted to see him as asa father.
So yeah, well, we made that, made that leap.
And we're like, we're going to do it.
There's no great timing, but then it it wasn't happening for

(07:20):
us. So we went through a, a fairly
painful journey of, of infertility and everything that
comes along with that. But when that first started, I
was at a company that I was out for, for quite a long time, but
I knew that I wanted next, I wasa VP, I wanted to go on to be

(07:43):
CMO. I was like, I, I need to, I need
to keep growing my career. At the same time, I don't know
when this family thing is going to happen.
I can't put that part, part of my life on pause.
So I took a new opportunity and then another one.
Well, he's still going through these infertility journeys.
And I was like, I can't, I don'thave the same relationships that
I had at at the company that I was at for a long time.

(08:04):
I don't want to put on them thatthis is what I'm going through.
So I was hiding that part and wanting to make sure that I was
still performing at the top of my game.
So that just kind of added to tothe anxiety with that as well
too. And, and just the fear, like not
that anybody gave me the impression that they would hold
it against me, but you just kindof know it as a woman.

(08:27):
That's that that's too big of a risk to share with people that
your family planning, especiallythat time we were coming out of
Colwood, but kind of into the next wave of tech layoffs and
things like that. So I was like, I, I don't want
to put a target on my back, evenif I'm performing well, Saying
that you're going to start a family in tech world is just,

(08:48):
it's just too big of a risk. So.
And I have to ask, would you change that, knowing what you
know now, having gone through somuch?
Would you tell yourself advice that's different to what you
did? I probably would cause like
there was so little that I can control in the world of
infertility and then in the world of your career.

(09:11):
Um, so being able to take one part of stress, that piece of
stress off my plate or off my mind because I can't control
what somebody's going to do withthat information.
But even though I was never kindof lying about what I was doing,
I was, I would say like I was answering slack messages from a

(09:32):
procedure table while I'm preparing for, for IVF or like
I'm taking time off for a medical procedure, but I can't
say what it is. And that just didn't make me
feel good and then added to my stress.
But being able to be open, transparent about that and take
the time that I need would have been one less thing.
And then whatever they do with it, they do with it, like I

(09:54):
said, so. Yeah, great point.
You can't control everything andyou can't control how people
feel. Yeah.
And yeah, it's just unfortunately the the world
we're living in and not to get too quick, maybe to the to the
first plot twist is I went through IVF.
This was my second transfer. My first one failed.

(10:15):
That was devastating. Went right back to work.
You feel like a a robot of like you just got to bury that down
and hop on the next call even though you've just been
devastated. But then went through my next
transfer and that one was successful and found out that I
was pregnant on a Sunday. Was laid off on a Tuesday.
And so like that, that wasn't, that wasn't about me being

(10:41):
pregnant, but it was just the nature of, of the timing.
And again, where I was just like, I went through all that
stress of trying to protect whatI was going through personally
and still got laid off and stillperformed well and still got
laid off. So I was like, I went through
all of that for and that's whereI like allude to, like you can't
control it anyway. You're not in control when you
work for somebody else. No, and this is my second time

(11:02):
hearing the story and still I'm like insane.
It's an insane, unfair, weird, maybe for two days, like it's so
you know, everything wrapped up in one, like that's just, you
know, I'm like full body goosebumps.
I'm like, what are the freaking chances you went through hell to
conceive, conceive, laid off. So what was your what was that

(11:26):
moment? What was that layoff moment like
for you? Like what exactly was going
through your mind? Your body?
When I kind of clued in that this was likely to happen, I
remember saying to my husband before we even got our test
results back saying would you rather that this transfer didn't
work and I have a job or that itworked and I don't and he.

(11:51):
Was not a question. Casual dinner.
Chat when I like I am the breadwinner of of our family
like it's it it's a huge implication to lose my.
Job. But if you have this, why I love
them without hesitation, lose your job.
Like, we'll figure it out. And yeah, So yeah, holy, that's

(12:13):
what happened. And yeah, it was the most
wildest time because I remember seeing those results.
And just like crumbling to be like this is this is amazing.
So like dealing with both those feelings at the same time, I'm
almost thankful for it because if I had just been laid off and
my job was my identity and that would have been like a huge

(12:37):
yeah. It it was hard either way.
Like, I remember feeling embarrassed about it of like,
I've got a post on LinkedIn thatI've been laid off and I need to
look for another job. And but, yeah, at least I had
kind of this little secret whereI was just like, but something
amazing is happening, too, yes. So what happened next?
So you get laid off? Was it like a walkout situation?

(12:57):
So by the Wednesday you are pregnant and literally don't
have a job? Did you get noticed?
Like what happened there? Wednesday, no job so.
Holy shit. We're we're done, Yeah.
And I can't remember how quicklyit was, but I remember just
feeling like, OK, I've got a ticking clock.
I cause lots of people were like, just take the time to like

(13:19):
process it and like you don't have to start networking and
doing all the things right away.But like, obviously I wasn't
sharing with people that I was pregnant, but I was like, yeah,
I do have to do this right away.So I remember posting right away
and I have a great network. Lots of people reached out and I
started doing interviews and allthat right away.

(13:40):
But again, it was the nature of the time in the industry.
So there was a lot of layoffs and even a lot of those
introductions did a few different interviews.
Those kind of led to dead ends, but then eventually, so I was
laid off in February or no for January and I started

(14:03):
interviewing with the new company in March and was offered
a job with them and started at the end of April.
So by then math, I believe I'm four months pregnant.
And yeah, interviewing while you're pregnant and especially
in the first semester for anybody who's gone through it,

(14:24):
like, holy shit. Like I well, I have new respect
for it. Every woman who who's working
during that time, like I just I needed to lie down.
I like oh, I wanted to say like the people that were
interviewing me. I'm like you didn't Get Me Out
my best, but like I still feel like I put through some heroic
efforts there but and nausea, but.

(14:45):
Yeah, women are. Flew to some interviews and I
was like oh please don't look pregnant but.
Oh my gosh, incredible. She landed the job and you're in
marketing in the tech world. I assume it was a pretty big
role that you landed at this point.
It was another VP of marketing role and I had, I know people

(15:07):
have really strong feelings about this, but I didn't
disclose that I was pregnant during the interview process.
That was the advice I got. Regardless of size of the
company, regardless of the role,you're never going to know why
somebody decided not to move youforward in an interview process.
And unfortunately, again, that'sjust the world that we live in.

(15:31):
So I waited until I had the job offer and then disclosed that I
was pregnant. And I was because I've been an
executive. I've experienced, unfortunately,
what gets said after someone discloses that they're pregnant.
Even when people have the best of intentions, it's usually

(15:53):
like, oh shit, like now we have to deal with this?
Like, how are we going to deal with this?
And like, yeah, just that's usually the nicest that it goes.
So I was expecting a little bit like just disappointment
obviously, and maybe some frustration.
Uh, I got the worst of it and I wasn't braced for that.

(16:20):
Yeah. The first question was when did
you find out? Ohhhhhh no it wasn't.
Yeah, yeah. They asked when did you find?
Out. When did you find out?
Like asking. Of your data business.
Yeah, It's like that's a medicalquestion, actually.
Like what if I said I just foundout, but I am four months
pregnant? You're also going to judge that

(16:42):
answer. But yeah, I actually, I
disclosed. I was like, I went through IVF.
This is my whole thing. This is when this happened, but
like, I hope that that this is just a blip in our role like
this as we talked about this being a, a long term
relationship and yeah, everything that we went through

(17:04):
in in the interview process. So it's like this.
My, my goal is to show you that this is still the best higher
decision that that you've ever, ever made.
But the next question was, why did you choose us?
Yeah, and it just got got worse from there.
The next question was why did you choose us?

(17:25):
Yeah, basically, knowing what you know about the company, what
we need, why would you choose us?
And you knew that you were pregnant.
Wow, like why did you decide to sue her?
Us is basically what they were implying yeah.
Why did you decide this person? Why did you decide to burden us
with this with your pregnancy that you've been trying for for
ages? That's going to bring a human

(17:46):
into the OK getting I'm getting fired up knowing.
How much we needed this role, knowing what we needed to
accomplish. Why would you do this?
How did you answer that? OHS I, I think that's probably
where I went into like my goal is to show you that this is the

(18:06):
best hire that you're you're gonna make.
Like this isn't going to be a I remember saying I, I'm not gonna
make it a burden on you like I were.
I am going to do the work that to set you up for in a really
great position by the time that I leave.
I probably didn't go into these plans, but my plan all along was
that like I was going to, I've obviously never had been

(18:29):
pregnant before. I hadn't had a child yet, but I
was like, I, I really thought that I had joined an amazing
organization from, from the interviewer and really thought
that this of all cultures was going to be a culture that
supported me and was going to beworth sacrificing time with my
child. And that I was going to be
available to them and support through the early days of my

(18:51):
leave and then likely come back thoroughly.
But then with the initial reaction, I was like, OK, I
can't promise anything because this isn't what I thought it
was. So I remember them asking, well,
then how long are you going to take?
And I was like, well, I'd like to take 12 months.
And the response is, well, that's your legal right.
Oh. My.

(19:11):
Gosh. Yeah.
And then? They just kept digging.
They were digging and digging and they were like, what's the
worst question we could ask next?
And then they asked it. Yeah.
And then going into this person,put their blood, sweat and tears
into the company. And by saying that I was like,

(19:31):
are you insinuating that I'm ruining your company
essentially? But it just was not great.
We ended up just ending the call.
They said that they'll take thatthe weekend to kind of digest
and then we'll we'll talk again on Monday.
Wow, how we left that So so to recap, you get the paperwork to

(19:55):
get like super granular. So you get the paperwork and
that's when so before signing. You did?
No, I did sign I. Signed, signed.
OK, yeah, got the paperwork signed it disclosed your
pregnant like yay, I'm part of the team now.
I can tell you this very big information that is still scary.
And I'm sure like whoa, first time pregnant and they're like,
we're going to digest this. So you come back to work Monday.

(20:16):
What happens then? Like how do you or are you come
back? You hadn't started work yet.
I hadn't started work yet, so I think I had maybe about another
2 weeks before I was formally supposed to start.
But yeah, we had set up it as person reached out on Sunday

(20:38):
through text and said that as promised, they had thought more
about it. Can we chat on on Monday?
And I said absolutely. They sent me a Zoom invite for a
15 minute talk. So yeah, then I replied back.
I was like, are you rescinding the offer?

(20:59):
Like this isn't a very long timeto talk about something really
important. And they were like, that's not
the intent of the call as promised.
I just want to share kind of my reaction.
Oh, and give you an update aboutyour reference checks.
And I was like, oh, that's interesting because like I've

(21:19):
already signed the offer and you've already got my
references, but I wonder what could have changed over the
weekend about my, my references,but.
What? Oh my gosh, that keep going.
So Monday comes. So minute call yeah the 15
minute call probably ends up being an hour and 15 minute call
as I assumed it would be it the tone had changed to more so not

(21:42):
be an issue that I am pregnant, but how I told them that I was
pregnant. I had sent a text and said I
just need to run something by you.
My reason for why I did where did it that way is that I didn't
want to be like, hey, I've got aproblem that I need to tell you

(22:03):
or there's something bad or making them worried that I was
backing out or not going to takethe job.
So probably could have worded that better, but I just didn't
want to freak them out. But the feedback was that I that
I was trying to essentially catch them off guard by not

(22:23):
setting up what should have beena serious call and meeting.
So that was kind of the distal feedback and then just kind of
like the broken relationships oftrust that I should have shared
it during the interview process and that it really changes the
90 day plan that I put forward. But it's like it actually

(22:43):
doesn't. I am still here for the 90 days
like that. What I promised is what I'm
going to execute on top of obviously that there needs to be
a contingency plan that I build for for my leave sort of thing.
So yeah, the tone kind of changes a little bit on my side.

(23:05):
I need the job. I, I am trying to do whatever I
can to smooth it over even though I'm dying inside where
it's just like, I have really misjudged this, but it's the bed
I made and I got to lay in it and I got to figure out a way to
make this work. There's no way like for when it
like the length of time that it takes to go through executive

(23:28):
hires. It's like if I say back out of
this and say no and try to find a job again there, there's
probably no chance that I'm going to find a job.
Wow. Right.
Because you're like, we're talking months here, we're
talking more flights, we're talking big conversations, big
budgets that are being, you know, thrown around and
opportunities that are even available.

(23:49):
I always say that like stars kind of have to align for you
to, you know, a person to be jobsearching while the dream
company is also looking for thatrole.
Like that's a huge thing as well.
So that's that's so fair. And you said you're the
breadwinner. I can only imagine that there
was some, you know, financial, you have a baby coming too, like
those. Those are a lot of factors.

(24:10):
Well and also like I, I was worried about my career.
So if if I am laid off in in January and I want to take time
off with my child, I'm looking at a two year career gap then.
And I was like, that's like, I'mworried about what a six or a 12
month career gap is going to look like, let alone that is

(24:31):
like, I don't know how to come back from that like that.
Just so the financial side that if there's future children in
our future, like everything likethat was spiraling of like not
having a job right now can impact the rest of the rest of
our lives and family planning. So it was huge.
Huge, huge. How did you reconcile and move

(24:53):
forward? So you have a discussion like
this on that Monday, and I assume you continued discussing
like, how did you, Oh my gosh, I'm just trying to think of the
pill you're trying to swallow inthis moment too.
How did you move forward? Um, it was awkward.
I'm just saying it like to you. So like the well, I don't know,

(25:17):
it doesn't. That word doesn't seem to do it
justice. But yeah, I think they
recognized they were stuck and Iwas stuck, and we continued
forward. So I started in the role.
I felt like I could always feel this animosity.
Obviously, I tried to kind of talk to others on the leadership

(25:41):
team of like, I still feel that like I'm never going to be
accepted here, but like how do Imove forward?
How do I start building relationships, and particularly
with the founder of this company?
Yeah. And just kind of kept going

(26:02):
through it, kept kind of feelinglike the things that I was
putting forward, the things thatI was trying to do, like one day
they'd be good, the next day they were not.
And go to post kind of moving discussions kind of changing.
Um, yeah. So as yeah, just going through
trying to do my best, trying to put forward the strategies that

(26:26):
we wanted in place, working towards like what does this
transition period look like? And I should have seen the red
flags that like this person was never really talking to me about
it. Like I there was somebody else
that on the leadership team thatkind of handled a little bit of
the HR stuff. So I would talk with them about
it, but they, yeah, there was just kind of red flags around.

(26:48):
There doesn't seem to be a lot of discussion around this.
It felt like the elephant in theroom, like even being like, can
I share this with like the rest of the the team?
I was like this could if we're looking to kind of move forward
and we could make this actually into really good story of like
use it for future recruitment oflike you've got your female
executive that you hired while she was pregnant and here's how

(27:11):
you supported her through her leave and like all those sort of
things. So they did a 45 day performance
review which I've never experienced before.
Never heard that before. OK.
Yeah, a 47 day performance review, the standard 47 day
performance. Review.
Yeah, yeah. But I got a, a document saying

(27:32):
that I was not meeting the expectations of the role.
And I was just like, oh shit, they're putting the groundwork
together to fire me as soon as Iget back from leave.
So had the performance review discussion.
I was like, I'm very confused about some of this.
It's like this data is not from this.
This data is from here. I don't like, and we're actually

(27:52):
tracking to hit these goals at this percentage for goals that
we had at the company had historically never even tracked
before that we kind of aligned on of like we're putting a line
in the sand. We're we're going to start
building off of this. So it's like this is actually
quite surprising. Anyways, that happens in.
So I was hired in April. This happens in towards the end

(28:15):
of June. The company had we have holidays
in there for for Canada Day and the 4th of July.
I come back on the first week inJuly and I've gotten news that I

(28:36):
have placenta previa, uh, which people can Google that if
that's, Oh, my daughter, Yeah, yeah.
Unite, unite with those placentas.
Low lying. Yeah, those pesky placentas that
try to kill us. Yeah, so my, my doctor had
advised that my placenta was blocking and that I was going to

(29:00):
have to have a C-section becauseif I risked going into labour, I
risked my placenta rupturing andyou bleed out and die.
And because my was also in just a very risky spot, it was now
threatening my baby too. So she was like, we need to
schedule your C-section and we need to move it up.

(29:21):
You're going to have to have a C-section at 36 weeks, which was
three to four weeks earlier thanwhat I was hoping my, my last
day was going to be. So I share that news.
I'm saying that I'm unfortunately going to like,
this is now my, my due date is, is set in stone.
I'm going to have to have the C-section for medical reasons.

(29:42):
I'm going to have to leave earlier.
Let's bump up these these plans and figure out kind of what
we're doing. I off again for for a family
holiday or for a family wedding and then I get back that Monday
and and pulled into a zoom call to tell me that I am terminated

(30:05):
from my role. That I failed to improve from
the performance discussion that had happened 5 working days
earlier. Three working days since telling
them about my leave needing to happen sooner.
Ah. I can't even imagine.

(30:28):
I can't imagine what you were going through at that moment.
Previa is very scary. Coming out of it you're like OK,
like it's, it's fine. But in the moment it's not fine.
Like it's very scary. It's a very scary thing to hear
about and to hear the consequences of early labour
etcetera. Well, just what we've been
through too, where I was just like I really thought like the

(30:49):
universe does not want me to have this baby of like I
couldn't get pregnant in the 1stplace.
Going through IVF then getting laid off then going through this
with the job is like stress is trying to get to me and then
getting placenta previa where I should like I ended up.
Me and my husband went to a lawyer to get our wills made

(31:11):
before going in for my C-sectionbecause I just felt like the
universe is not going to let this happen.
Like either I'm not going to make it.
She's not going to make it. Something I was like, we need
to, I was like, I need to make sure that like you're going to
be OK. Oh my God.
So like, that's everything that's going through through my
mind have like, yeah. But if I can get a message out

(31:33):
to employers of like, it is not just losing your job, like when
you lose your job when you're you're pregnant or on maternity
leave or recently returned from maternity leave, like these,
there's real life things that are happening here.
I thought we were going to lose our house.
Like our mortgage was up for renewal and then mortgage rates
have gone up. Like, and again, being that

(31:53):
prime breadwinner, it's just like, what's going to happen to
all these things? I survive and we lose our house.
Oh my goodness, Beth, this isn'tit's just I didn't know that
these details and I'm just so shocked and I'm so sorry that
you've experienced this. I feel like as an interfere, I'm
supposed to be more like neutral, but I don't care.
I wear my heart on my sleeve. It's like that's so out of

(32:13):
control. Can I ask, like you're delivered
the message, what were the words?
Do you remember the words that you said back to them?
Oh yeah, I said. I can't remember in which order
I said, but I know I only said two things.
I said, this is insane. And I said this was
unbelievable. And so I was like, I don't know

(32:36):
which one was first, but I was just like, you know, And then I
think, yeah, they walked me through the details and anything
else you want to say. And I was just like, I've got
nothing to say like. And that was it.
And my husband, because I work from home, he could hear it all
and came in, gave me a hug and like I don't even think I cried
because I was just in shock. I was just like this.

(32:58):
I can't believe this is our liferight now.
That's yeah, I thought they're they're going to do it when I
get back, but I never imagined they would do it right before.
So you're. So I was pregnant at this point.
88, pregnant at that point. So yeah, I think I was four or
five weeks away from my scheduled C-section, so no

(33:23):
chance of getting another job atthat point.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so and EI, is that a thing
at this point? I'm getting so granular.
But like these are the little things that like if if someone's
listening and this is adjacent to what you're experiencing,
it's like how, what is the next step?
Like are you, do you call the lawyer next EI, Like what
happens next after this? Like what are the implications?

(33:46):
Lawyer was next call for sure. Good.
Yeah. Yeah.
Hmm. OK.
Lawyers lawyered up and then didthey try it?
This is another funny, very granular question.
But did they try to turn? It sounds like they were
terminate, terminating you with cause.
Not was caused they were terminating me because I was
four days shy of my probation period ending so overall

(34:10):
probation period, but they citedin that performance.
OK. As long as they're hey,
performance, yeah, yeah, OK, theprobation.
Which is like great, I'm very data-driven person.
Let's go toe to toe on my performance.
Question for you, just as like if you were talking to a friend
again, knowing what you know andbeing in the space that you're

(34:30):
in now. I've, I've worked with people, I
have heard it all, of course, like there's no one way.
I believe there's no one way to do it.
Whether you tell people in the interview process, if it's
somebody you know, whether you don't tell them, like I really
think that there's a lot of different scenarios and you have
to kind of do what's right for you, right?
Like depending on the situation,so there's people that I know

(34:51):
who will wait till after the probationary period for
additional security. Like what do you, what are your
thoughts? And I get, I know every
situation is different. What are your thoughts on on
that? I know that you couldn't have
that would be a very long time for you to wait.
But what do you think about like, just knowing what you know
now about waiting? I think you got it.

(35:12):
I think that that's a sad world that we live in.
And I know there again, there are others that will feel
different. I think what was said to me was
like, well, wouldn't you have wanted to know?
Like, wouldn't you have wanted to know?
Like that was their reaction andyou could go find somewhere with
a better culture. Sure, in a, in a fairy tale

(35:33):
world, but again, I wouldn't have any way of knowing that.
Like people aren't dumb. They don't say to you directly
like, oh, you're pregnant. Sorry.
We're going to move forward withother candidates.
There's no way for me to know that.
There's no way to prove it. And like I said, I am under the
gun at that point. Like I can't take that risk.
I have. I'm looking out for my family

(35:54):
and I did have the best of intentions.
Like I really thought like I'm going to prove to them that I'm
really in this with them. Like this is going to be a great
hire and then this is going to be a great story for them.
And like, yes, they might be upset initially, but like, I
guess that's the where you're like, I know myself, they don't
know me yet, but like, they're going to get the best out of

(36:15):
this. And I'm going to be so loyal and
so dedicated because they gave me that lifeline when I I needed
it. And, and I was really excited
about the role. I was really excited about the
company. I was like, I'm going to help
build this and this is what I'm going to do.
And this is my next move. And yeah, it wasn't just about
like I need to get a paycheck with anything for for anyone.
I was excited. Yeah.

(36:36):
And I just, I keep thinking about the fact that you would
have been going in there like had this all worked out, had
they played their cards better, they would have, had you come
in, set them up for a year. However, they would have been
set up with a marketer who wouldhave like set the team up, set
the marketing plan, like put everything in motion like a good
leader would do. There's so many reasons why I
feel like it could have been a, to your point, a great story is

(36:58):
the great marketer you are. You're thinking of the story
here, and what a great story could have been.
Holy smokes. So then what happens next?
But I'm like on the edge of my seat here.
So you have your C-section in four weeks time.
You're speaking with lawyers, like how do you even how do you,
how are you mentally dealing with these next couple of weeks
about to bring a human into the world, but dealing with like

(37:19):
real shit? Adrenaline, I think like I was
just like, this is so wrong. And you, I think you, you're
underestimated what I care about.
And I really care about protecting women, protecting

(37:40):
parents and protecting your career.
So it's like this is a principlething for me now.
So if you think this is just about me personally and that I
will go away because I'm about to have this baby and I can't
focus on anything else, I was like, well now I have no job and

(38:01):
I've got time, so let's fight. Yes, girl, yes, they messed with
the wrong woman. That's for.
Sure, yeah. And to the extent that you're
willing to share, what has the outcome been so far in the in
that situation, you know, what is what happened?
How did it resolve, if at all? God, I can't even imagine.

(38:25):
Yeah. Yeah, there's not, not too much
that I can go into, but it is anongoing human rights process.
So I think we're 8, my daughter's 17 months at the time
of this recording. So add on a month to that or a

(38:46):
year and a half in, we could be years more down the road, but a
minute's good. Thank you, You know what I have
to say that I think I told you this will be for initially met
and I feel like I maybe I don't know how eloquently I said it,
but I feel like I had some sort of like thanks that I tried to
share an appreciation for you doing this, because I feel like

(39:07):
I'm getting a bit emotional, butI've had people extremely close
to me have situations where they're should they could have
gone the human rights route, butto protect their own peace.
It just you know, it's and that's also another decision is
like, are you are you willing tofight?
Are you able to fight with the capacity to fight?

(39:27):
And someone extremely close to me just did not.
We just needed the chapter to close.
But and there's been a number ofclients who I've worked with who
have had that same situation with her.
Like man, I want to be that person.
I want to be the person who is like, you've messed with the
wrong woman, you've messed with the wrong mom, you've messed
wrong person. And like go to bat and pay the

(39:49):
legal fees. Like there's a lot of out of
pocket expenses. I can only imagine if that's
kind of the situation you're in.So I would like to thank you on
behalf of all of us, anybody whodoesn't have the capacity and
ability to fight because. It's just there's so many

(40:09):
situations where people don't have the capacity or the means
to fight, and This is why it continues to happen.
Yeah, but there's no shame on those people that can't do it
because there's so many factors at play, right?
Much like that is what bad actors are are are banking on,

(40:31):
like they know that like you're in the most vulnerable position
of your life, you are about to bring in a human being.
Your income is about to go down to 0.
You're not in a position to likethat isn't That is the most
understandable position of most women to be like, I can't take
this on right now. And they know that I feel like I

(40:56):
very fortunate to be in the privileged position that I've
been in to be able to fight to to have again, shout out to my
husband of like him stepping in and he was like, wow, girl, take
on extra contracts. I'll do what I need to do for us
to be able to buy ourselves the time, but it's also the the
wherewithal to deal with like biting something for for years.

(41:20):
Again, most people will give up just because of the time that it
takes and that you want to move on with your, your life.
And even speaking to, um, the Human Rights Commission, they
were like, well, you've already done more even by filing because
most women won't even file, let alone see it through to a trial.

(41:42):
And I was like, that's actually incredibly sad that that's the
bar like, God, yeah. And it's like that's what's
flawed with our our system that like, and that what when I
obviously first experienced this, I thought like, I've
experienced the extreme. I I wasn't prepared for this.

(42:02):
I was prepared for when all my fears throughout how like my
starting a family would affect my career.
I really thought unconscious bias was the thing that I had to
worry about the most. I thought most people are
genuinely good. I still believe most people are
genuinely good. Yeah.
But that like it, it was just going to be kind of the natural

(42:23):
fear that people have of like, well, how do I continue when
like I do need somebody in that role?
And like there are legitimate logistical concerns for
companies of like wanting to be supportive, but like you've got
goals and, and things that you need to, to meet.
And yeah, anyways, I I wasn't prepared for the blatant

(42:43):
discrimination. And then when I shared my story
for the first time on LinkedIn, when I heard from hundreds of
other women and even speaking tovarious lawyers when they were
like, Oh, yeah, I've got cases of hundreds of women.
And I was just like, that. That was more motivation where I
was like, I need to be able to speak about this, to warn the

(43:04):
others, but also just to educatearound this stuff.
Like, I didn't know what I didn't know.
And there's so many. Like, being able to tell that
story is also hugely therapeuticfor me.
Like if I had to bury this down and never talk about it again,
it would eat at me for the rest of my life.
And I can think about how many women are sitting with that
right now because they've signedseverance agreements or NDA's

(43:28):
and they have the exact same story and they're listening to
this or not the exact same story.
But even think like just that, there's that under lying theme
that they're like, yes, I've experienced something like that
and I wasn't able to talk about it.
Oh my gosh, Beth, it's just unbelievable.
And what you bring up around thethe severance agreement, like I
know actually many clients of mine who have been in various

(43:51):
different situations kind of surrounding this topic, whether
it was pregnancy or it was returned from leave and things
like that. And again, talking about being
so vulnerable. And in some case, many cases
from what I've heard, having sixfinger severance agreements
dangled at you to say you signedthis paper, you are waving,

(44:11):
you're right to come back after us.
You're saying that this is amicable.
You're saying that you agree. You're saying this, you're
saying that whatever it is that's in these agreements, in
these NDA's, you can't talk about it.
And what we're going to do is we're going to give you lots of
money. Don't think that was probably
not the case that you were necessarily in.
And and then that's it. You have to bury the hatchet.

(44:32):
You can't talk about this ever again.
And you've basically, and how could people who are in their
most vulnerable position, how are people not signing that
agreement, right? Like to say yes I need the
money, yes I will take this money but in exchange I'm being
silenced. Yeah.
And then I also thought about like, how do I continue on with
my career? Like, yeah, I can't explain why

(44:58):
I was only at this company for 11 1/2 weeks, but then I've got
this gap from being laid off. So I was like, I assigned this
and you move on with your life and who knows how long it's
gonna take me to get A to get another job and to to replace my
salary salary, if I even can. Yeah.

(45:19):
What would be your advice to people who are in that situation
where they feel like there's a, you know, you get laid off?
I sidebar, do believe like in what I've been seeing recently,
layoffs are just happening so much more frequently in this
generation because of just the speed in which business moves.
People aren't saying with companies for 40-50 years, tech,
etcetera. So layups are definitely more

(45:40):
common, but what would your advice be to somebody who feels
like there's a growing gap in their resume after coming out of
a layoff? How do you reconcile that?
The growing gap, it's hard. It's situational for for
everyone. For me, what I was trying to do
is get involved in different organizations and like, at least
be able to say like what I was doing with my time.

(46:03):
Um, I took a course, all those sort of things, but that's hard
to do too at the same time when you've got a new baby.
So like you want to be able to, that was the other part that was
heavy on my mind of like, it's hard with them when you're
you're wanting to just focus that time with your child, but
now you're job searching and nowyou're thinking about ways that

(46:25):
you can keep your skills relevant and show what you were
doing during that time versus just my time is with my
daughter. So that added insult to injury
too. That's so hard.
I mean, if I can give my two cents as well, It's the, it's
the just just normalizing it. And the less, yeah, energy you
give to words like trying to explain what you were doing and

(46:47):
trying to be like, I was productive.
It wasn't my fault. Like the I always tried to tell
people to just like, drop your shoulders, relax and be like,
oh, you know, those darn, like those darn layoffs, they're
happening everywhere, right? Like give it that energy of
like, yeah, it was part of a layoff.
It was unfortunate, but wow, what a great opportunity it was.
I got involved with organizations.

(47:08):
I had, you know, Matt leave where I got to spend extra time
with my daughter. And now I'm excited to be coming
back into the workforce and havethis new energy.
You know, it's like it's that it's that tonal shift.
I feel like you don't like Instagram or TikTok where
there's people who are talking. They're like, hey, watch this.
And then it's like, well, you know, it was it was a hard time
and like I was laid off and probably not for performance,

(47:30):
but you never known. And then it's versus like the
ladder, you know, the the alternative for it's like, yeah,
what? About owning.
It owning it, I'm being like, yeah, I was laid off, but like
so were like 50 other people or yeah, I was like too expensive.
I was pushed out. That happens too, when you're
getting into the executive level.
Like you wouldn't tell these stories in a way that people are
like, Oh, yeah, I mean, and you've been an executive

(47:50):
yourself where you're like, you hear these stories and you're
like, yeah, I'm not even battingan eye at the fact that this
person was laid off because there's so many reasons why
people are laid off. And a lot of time it's not
performance related. It's.
No, like especially at the scalethat it's happening now, like
there's no way that it can be performance related for
everyone. No, absolutely not.
Sorry. God, don't.

(48:11):
I mean, everybody listening? It is, I'm pretty sure everybody
listening to parents. So they're probably gonna put a
hole in my mouth, but I don't know if that's gonna be even
more. Garbled, but we're we're coming
to the part of the story that isthat is very fun, which is what
you're doing now and what has inspired and come out of this

(48:32):
absolutely wild story, which I thank you so much for being so
vulnerable and sharing just eventhe intricacies of it and
walking us through. I'm so excited for you to share
more about mother cover or shareabout mother cover.
We haven't even dropped that bomb yet.
So take us to the inception of this beautiful idea that you
have at this company that you. Have Yeah.
So I had the idea for Mother Cover fairly early on.

(48:59):
Um, but I sat there days after actually and sat on, sat on it
because I was like, I don't knowif this is an actual thing, but
the thought was as there's kind of a rise in fractional work,
contract work, particularly for women and parents who maybe have

(49:20):
had like me 10/15/20 years into their career, better now parents
and want a little bit more controller or flexibility.
How to marry that rise with companies who have leaves to
fill, particularly maternity and, and, and parental leaves.

(49:41):
And is there a way to kind of create those those marriages so
that when I say parents, usually95% of the time right now, maybe
hopefully this will change its women.
But when women are going on leave, they can feel like there
is somebody who is available to step into their shoes that can

(50:04):
execute their strategy, keep thetrain on the tracks for them, be
a resource for their company so that they don't feel like
they're a burden for taking thistime.
But it solves both sides of the coin of they're able to take the
time that they need to focus on what's important in in their
life in that moment, knowing that their career is safe for

(50:27):
them to come back to. And because I've been the
executive on the other side of that too.
That's what was really importantto me is, is that acknowledging
the challenges on the companies side and saying that like we, we
can find you the right person tofill into those shoes so that
you don't have to worry about goals being missed.

(50:48):
You don't have to worry about team burnout because the work
was just spread out amongst everybody else that's existing
or or what have you. Basically that solving both
sides of you can let your peoplebe human beings and your company
can still move forward. And then that person can come
back right where they they left off and you've invested in them,

(51:09):
you've invested in your team andyou see the mountains that that
parent is going to move because you supported them when they
needed it. Yes.
And who was the person who is slotting in?
Like, how? How is that person?
Where are they coming from? Yeah, So I've as I got brave
enough to actually launch MotherCover, so launched it into the

(51:31):
world and I've either through kind of my own network of,
again, putting this story out there and hearing from other
women who are at similar places in their careers who are looking
for a fractional or contract type of work.
I started building a roster of folks.
And then I've had as the kind ofword about Mother Cover has
grown, I've had other people reaching out that I've met with,

(51:52):
I've had the best conversations and I just start from building
that roster and database. These are people at those are
the seniority levels that they're comfortable covering.
They're marketing, they're in sales, they're in customer
service, they're people leaders,HR then.
And these are the industries andstarting to build that so that

(52:14):
when either the parent going on leave or the manager or company
finds mother cover and they cometo us and say, we've got a leave
to fill. This is what it looks like.
I can say I've got somebody for you and we set up the process
from there. When you explained this to me in
our call that do you know the first thing I think I probably

(52:34):
told you this dude, the first thing that came to mind was the
feeling of security that it would give the mother going, the
person going on leave, typicallythe mother going on leave and
how my first maternity leave wascoming from corporate.
So I was leaving Aritzia where Iused to work and I was going on
mat leave. I was not replaced, whereby I

(52:55):
held a little bit like a tiny bit of guilt, not that much
because it wasn't my decision, but a tiny bit of guilt that my
team members were taking on whatI was doing.
My VPN that I reported into was taking a bit of it as like the
leadership stuff the people on my team were having to cover,
you know, like literally cover as this is the whole idea of
mother cover. But then I was always thinking
like, OK, what I wanted the reverse though, what I've wanted

(53:18):
like a better version of myself,like come in and woo the team
over. And then I would feel shy or
embarrassed or like, am I about to?
Is this person gunning for my job?
Because a lot of times people will take contract work, of
course, because they're like, this is a great in for the
company. I can go and show what I can do.
Not necessarily they're gunning to take this mother's position,
but that they're, you know, they're also trying to grow

(53:40):
their career. It's a foot in the door.
And so I was just mad when you explained this.
I was like, yes, because this isso intentional.
It's saying you will be covered by somebody whose intention is
to cover your for that period oftime.
Yeah, build their resume, make sure maybe there's another
position at the company and who knows.
I'm sure that happens. But like it's so intentional.

(54:02):
You were coming to cover. This is not a foot in the door
to steal this person's job. And I think that's a real thing
that isn't talked about, right. Like, yeah, absolutely that
happens. We, we work with a lot of
American companies where I thinkit's easier understood the
challenges there because the leaves are shorter and you
typically don't have a backfill.So when you're only doing a 345,

(54:28):
even a six month leave, it's hard to attract somebody into
such a short term engagement. So they typically don't
backfill. And that's where you burn out
teams and and say kind of like the there's a story.
But then I often get questions to be like, well, you probably
don't speak to a lot of Canadiancompanies or or parents because

(54:48):
it's not the same thing. And it's like our system is just
flawed in different ways. It looks better on paper than it
is. But exactly what you you said of
like if you're filling, if you're posting a 12 to 18 months
leave, you typically are doing acontract.
And like you said, somebody is looking at that as a foot in the
door because who wants to leave a permanent job to take on a

(55:11):
contract role if it isn't to roll into something else or and
I've been guilty at the about this for the companies that I've
worked with where I thought thatthis was a good solution.
But as you learn better, you do better.
We posted permanent jobs becausewe were in tech.
So in 12 to 18 months, so much can change.

(55:34):
And again, in Canada, you don't have to offer the same job back.
It just has to be a comparable job at the same level.
So my thinking was that I can hire somebody permanent and I'm
going to find a spot for both women, not realizing the stress
and fear that that puts on because I don't want any job

(55:55):
when I come back. I if I love my job and my
career, I want my job totally back.
And it's something that a lot ofpeople, I think, again, men in
particular, don't have to fear that somebody gets a chance to
audition for your. Job for a year.
Yeah, like you said, like are they gonna like them better and
are they gonna do better? And I'm sure somebody will say

(56:16):
well, that's good added motivation for you to just step
up your game. But no, again, you don't have
that threat in most situations that somebody even gets the
chance to show you up in your inyour job.
So why would you want to set that person up for success?
So like that also is just where you're not aligned with the same

(56:37):
interests and the same interest of your company.
But then the purpose of Mother Cover is that, yeah, again, we
don't want your job. We're ideally on to the next
contract after. And the people that we vet and
become part of our leave partners is, is what we call
them, are motivated not just by,yes, they want to take on

(57:00):
interesting work and add to their, their resumes and build
their careers, but they are connected to the mission of
mother Cover and want to help create better experiences.
So we say that even though it's the company that is paying us,
it is the parent that is our client.
So our job is to make you look good.
We emphasize that it is your strategy that we are executing

(57:23):
so that you're not forgotten while you're you're off and
making sure that you feel well ready for transitioning into
your leave as well as re onboarding back and, and, and
being able to kind of create a whole process and experience
around that. And then the companies also can
use that as evidence of how they're walking the talk or the

(57:48):
opposite. Yeah, of their culture of it's
more than just about providing protective leave.
It's more than just about preparing, providing paid leave,
all great, really important things that we need to offer.
But now we're starting to think about the actual experience and
how to alleviate those things that cause stress for parents
going on leave and how it leads to better retention.

(58:11):
Of you're always worried that like, well, they're going to
leave and then they're not goingto come back, that's typically
because they felt unsupported and they feel like they need,
they can't get themselves out ofthe situation that they've
created, whether there was animosity about the team because
they've felt overburdened or they missed goals, all those
sort of things. So to be able to think about
that experience from a new perspective and to offer a

(58:34):
relatively simple experience like solution, I think that was
part of my hesitancy of startingthis where I was just like, it
has to exist like this does thisseems too.
I, I would say easy. It's not easy to actually create
the set and make those those marriages.
But it's not maybe because I come from tech that I think
everything has to be a high techsolution.
But I was like, this is a human solution.

(58:54):
Humans helping humans create in the village.
We can do it if as long as we'rewilling to kind of think
differently about how we think about work and how it gets
covered and yeah, how we can support one another.
And are you finding that there'sso many questions, this could
literally be a three hour episode because I just find it
so fascinating. But are you finding that the

(59:16):
people who are sorry, the leave partners, So the people who are
back backfilling, for lack of a better word, there are they
could be mothers themselves or parents or people who want
flexible work who might say, OK,I have I can work from September
or through to June. And my kids are off in the
summer and I hope to be off withthem in the summer so that they
can make decisions on what companies and what situations

(59:39):
they're filling in. Like is it, is it creating
flexibility for parents? Like is one of the one of the
benefits if someone listening who's like, oh, this sounds
nice. Like what are some of the
benefits on the lease partner side?
Yeah, I would say that that's definitely one of them is the
flexibility. So whether it's you're feeling
full time for a temporary contract and links that maybe
you're you're taking your summers off, but actually more

(01:00:00):
often than not getting more intothat fractional side of things,
you don't necessarily need a 1 to 1 replacement.
You just really need somebody who's you're going to pick your
your critical projects that needto keep on track.
Or a lot of this was born from the idea of director level and

(01:00:20):
about people who need who have teams and thinking about being
able to provide still kind of that coaching guidance to team
members to make sure that they have a resource of someone to go
to make sure the projects are staying on on track.
So you might only need somebody 20 hours a week or however you
want to work it. Maybe it's 30 hours, maybe it's

(01:00:42):
down to 5 to 10 depending on therole.
Like there's a ton of flexibility and a ton of
different interests depending onkind of what the the leave
partner is after. And they might be able to fill
in for more than one leave at atthe time.
Yeah. And and then that, that's how
they can control. Like, do you want to work full
time? Do you want to work more than
full time? Do you want to work part time?

(01:01:03):
What works for your life right now?
And I've talked to folks that even depending on what their
work allows, they're doing leavecontracts on top of a of a
permanent job. So say that they're like I I am
not ready to leave my my corporate job or I need that

(01:01:24):
stability, but I'm not necessarily finding a lot of
reward. I have find out after you, after
you have children, but this can't happen to anybody at any
stage in your life. You're just like I need.
I want to feel connected to something greater.
Women and other people want to take on these types of contracts
because they are motivated by the mission or they've had a bad

(01:01:45):
experience where they're just like, I want to provide a better
experience for for another woman.
So I can take on five to 10 hours on top of my my day job
and help support that leave. So I really seen the the full
gamut of people who are already employed, people who want full
time but maybe not full year andpeople who want short term part

(01:02:06):
time I. Love it and I love that there's
no, this might sound weird. There's this isn't it?
There's no charity aspect to this.
It's not like here, let me there's no martyrdom involved
because it's not like the person's like, well, I'll go on
leave, but I'll come back or like, you know, the, the, the
mother, for instance, I'm going to call and I'll come back
earlier. I'll be available.

(01:02:27):
Like there doesn't have to be martyrdom there.
Then the leave partner who's coming in to backfill.
It's not like, oh, I'm going to do a charity service.
No, they're going to get paid, which is incredible because
women should be paid and be paidmore for the work that they're
doing, right. So it's like, and then the
companies still have to pay and they're actually probably paying
less because they might not be fully replacing the salary.
So it's. Yeah, like those related people.

(01:02:48):
Win. Yeah.
And I say that of like because if it's not something that they
thought about before, there's not necessarily budget for it.
So they're like why can't afforda full time hire, especially
ideally if they are paid some sort of top up to parentally.
So. Yeah.
So I was like, we can work within your budget.
So if you're like, I could afford 10 hours a week, let's do
that. We'll find you someone that fits

(01:03:09):
that. Perfect.
And then typically because it's the leaf partners have more
experience, so they could be filling a individual contributor
or yeah, just a a role that is maybe lower than their
experience. But they're able to do that so

(01:03:30):
quickly in so 10 hours from somebody who's more senior and
experience that has 10 years already or 15 years in their in
their career can really have a huge impact for your company in
in less time. Oh my goodness, I could ask you
a million more questions, but ifbefore I I we close out, if

(01:03:52):
somebody is going on a leave is a company who's interested in
this or is interested in a leaf partner role, how might they get
in touch with you? How can they learn more?
Yeah, go to our website whichismothercoveragency.com and
our contact form has options forwhether you're looking for leave

(01:04:13):
coverage, whether you're lookingfor just traditional fractional.
We also offer. So say you don't actually have a
leave to cover, but you just whether somebody has left and
you're looking for to hire next.We know as I know those hiring
executives can take long time. So we can step in and those ways
too. So you can choose lease
coverage, you can choose fractional coverage, or if
you're actually wanting to meet and potentially become a leaf

(01:04:35):
partner, that there's an option for that too.
That's so cool. OK, I ask everybody this bad.
What are you still trying to figure out?
Give me work, life, whatever. Oh, well, how to be an an
entrepreneur, I'm probably trying to to figure out because
that was not the intention for, for my life.

(01:04:55):
But yeah, balancing being an entrepreneur now with a with
being a parent because yeah, thesame idea was that I was going
to do fractional work and have more balance in my life.
But I've actually know never worked harder and longer but
when it feels like it's for a greater purpose it's all worth

(01:05:16):
it. So trying to figure out the if
balance exists or this is just kind of the the new normal.
But I'm loving it right now. Work life integration is what a
friend calls it, which I love, Ilike.
And now you have two realm clockjobs, entrepreneurship and
parenthood. But it sounds like I can just
see the light up as you talk about it.
It is the most incredible idea, concept, company.

(01:05:39):
Congratulations on your launch. And I, I feel like you're going
to be in like times and Forbes and all these things talking
about like, how did no one create this before?
Because it's, it's absolutely incredible.
So Congrats. Thank you so much for sharing
your story and your expertise. I feel like I have to have you
come on again and I want to do like a Q&A on like, what would

(01:06:00):
you do in this situation? What would you do in this
situation? Like just get, just do a rapid
fire. But we'll save that for another
time. I'm game.
Well, you let me know. OK, well, thank you for powering
through a toddler cold and we will speak very soon.
Thank you, Beth. Thank you.
Thank you so much for listening and since you made it this far,

(01:06:22):
please share this episode with afellow parent who you love,
respect, and want to support. And while you're at it, hit me
up on Instagram at All Figured Out.
Andrea, I would love to meet youand hear what you are trying to
figure out these days.