Mojo Mom Podcast with Balancing Professionals career expert Kella Hatcher

I'm continuing my series of Mojo Mom Podcast conversations with Courageous Parents, Confident Kids contributors, this week speaking with Kella Hatcher of Balancing Professionals consulting. Kella, collaborating with her business partner Maryanne Perrin, contributed a chapter on "Tools for Career Reinvention" to our new book.

Listen to the podcast now:



This week Mojo Mom is talking career strategies with Kella Hatcher, who along with Maryanne Perrin is a principal in Balancing Professionals consulting, advocating or a flexible, strategic, sustainable workplace. Kella and Maryanne have also contributed a chapter on career development to the new anthology that Amy Tiemann is editing, "Courageous Parents, Confident Kids -- Letting Go So You Both Can Grow."

Kella and Amy talk about strategies for lifelong career development, on-ramping, putting your best foot forward and getting your confidence back as you craft your own path, which may go "off-road" rather than follow a career ladder. Fortunately, these days more workers are advocating for alternative, flexible work, and that will benefit both Moms and Dads. Workplace change is coming, and we are the pioneers!

Get a digital download of our new book for free! Sign up on www.MojoMom.com

Mojo Mom Podcast--it's a New Year!

Sheryl and I got together to create our first Mojo Mom Podcast episode of 2009. We reflected on Inauguration Day, then talked about developments related to the upcoming release of Mojo Mom and our work within our Mojo Advisory Circle.

I really enjoyed this conversation, and it revealed the breadth and depth of what the connections between the ten women of our Mojo Advisory Circle have meant to us. This spring, I'll be writing a new Mojo Mom Party Kit session as a guide to help you form your own Mojo Circle, which functions as a collaborative roundtable board of directors for each person in the group.

Listen in to find out how this group has enhanced our lives.

Listen to the podcast now:


In related news, Mojo Advisory Circle members Kella Hatcher and Maryanne Perrin, the dynamic duo who run Balancing Professionals, are leading a Career On-Ramping Workshop at Meredith College on February 18th. I highly recommend their training. Visit the Balancing Professionals website for event details.

Mojo Mom Podcast: 'Opting Out?' author Pamela Stone

We posted our Mojo Mom Podcast episode a little early this week to give you time to listen to Professor Pamela Stone and register for next Wednesday's Carolina Parent Women@Work breakfast, where she will be the keynote speaker. The registration deadline is this Friday, September 12.

Last week's podcast guest, Kella Hatcher of Balancing Professionals, will also be offering a satellite symposium later that day, a Career On-Ramping workshop. If you are thinking about work but don't know where to start, both halves of the Women@Work event could be inspirational, rewarding, and a great opportunity to network.

Listen to the podcast now:


Here's the podcast episode description:

Amy and Sheryl are in a giddy mood this week, which is a nice change of pace!

They are happy because Pamela Stone, author Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home, is the guest on the podcast, and she'll be speaking in Durham, NC in person next week.

So if you are in the area, we hope you'll register for the Carolina Parent Women@Work Breakfast on September 17, and join us to form a Mojo table!

Mojo Mom Podcast with Balancing Professionals

We have a new podcast up and I think it's a good one.

Listen to the podcast now:



Amy and Sheryl discuss the successes of their Mojo Circle, a group of ten women who have met monthly for two years now. The group has a shared background as mothers, but when we meet we talk primarily about entrepreneurship, and serve as a sounding board for each other.

Amy and Sheryl talk about the keys to success in forming a group, and you can also find resources in the free Mojo Mom Party Kit on MojoMom.com

Then Amy talks to Kella Hatcher, co-founder of Balancing Professionals and expert on alternative work arrangements (flex-time, telecommuting--the strategies that allow people to get their work done and have a life, too!).

Balancing Professionals will be presenting a Career On-Ramping workshop in conjunction with the Carolina Parent Women@Work event in Durham, North Carolina on September 17, 2008.

A few more details about the Carolina Parent Women@Work event on the 17th. The event has two parts, the morning breakfast featuring a keynote talk by one of my favorite authors, Pamela Stone, the sociologist who wrote Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home. Her book is one of the most important motherhood books in recent years, because she did actual research investigating why women leave the workforce. She delves into the complicated mix of pushes and pulls that send mothers home. Pamela is a compassionate, mercifully polemic-free writer and speaker. We really needed a true sociologist to help us cut through the media static that clouded discussions about "Mommy Wars" and "Opting Out" storylines.

The morning event also covers the presentation of Carolina Parent magazine's Family Friendly Company Awards to local businesses, nominated by our readers and selected in partnership with UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Then, at 11 am, Balancing Professionals will begin their lunchtime Career On-Ramping workshop at the convention center just a few blocks away. If you are thinking of returning to work but are not sure of the steps along the journey back, this is the event for you.

A separate registration is required for each event which can be accomplished on the Carolina Parent website. I am very excited because this is basically my dream day of events, and I didn't have to lift a finger to make it happen.

I'll definitely be at the breakfast, so if you see me, sit down and we'll get a Mojo Table going!

"Pushed out" of work by a weak economy?

So The New York Times, the source that brought us the so-called "Opt-Out Revolution," back in 2003, now reports that the "Poor Economy Slams Brakes on Women's Workplace Progress." Here's a quote:

After moving into virtually every occupation, women are being afflicted on a large scale by the same troubles as men: downturns, layoffs, outsourcing, stagnant wages or the discouraging prospect of an outright pay cut. And they are responding as men have, by dropping out or disappearing for a while.

“When we saw women starting to drop out in the early part of this decade, we thought it was the motherhood movement, women staying home to raise their kids,” Heather Boushey, a senior economist at the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, which did the Congressional study, said in an interview. “We did not think it was the economy, but when we looked into it, we realized that it was.”

Now they tell us!

Actually, sociologist Pamela Stone already did. For an in-depth look at mothers & work, be sure to read her book, Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home.

If you live in the Triangle, you can hear Dr. Stone speak in person this fall at the annual Carolina Parent Women@Work breakfast. Whether you are currently employed or taking time out of the workforce, this is one talk you'll want to hear. That day you can also attend an optional satellite workshop, On-Ramping: Strategies for Re-entering the Workforce, conducted by our talented local experts Kella Hatcher and Maryanne Perrin of Balancing Professionals.