Stephanie Spangler was a brand new mom with a four-month-old daughter and a job she dreaded going back to.

Her sister Christie Brinley was coming back from her OWN maternity leave with a growing feeling that she needed something that was HERS.

Both of them wanted the same thing — a space where they could actually get work done while their babies were safely cared for right next door.

A coworking space with on-site childcare. A real one. Beautifully designed. Flexible. Built around the actual reality of being a working mother.

That place did not exist in their part of Southern California.

So The Cove sisters built it. 💛

In this episode, Brittany sits down with Stephanie and Christie — the sisters behind The Cove in Carlsbad, California — to talk about what it actually took to open the doors of a brick-and-mortar business in five months with their own money, their own hands, and no marketing budget.

Here is Stephanie’s version of the launch, almost word for word:

“We did not have the money, we did not have a designer, we did not have a marketing budget. We had our own garages piled up with furniture, our parents handing out flyers on windshields, and we had our vision. Five months later we opened the doors.”

Five months, mama. From “we should open one of these” to turning the key.

Plus — the chamber of commerce move most entrepreneurs skip, the Lamborghini owner who called to complain about a flyer on his windshield, why in-person legwork beats digital ads for brick-and-mortar every time, the “say yes era” of local collaboration that fills a space without a marketing budget, the family-like staff of mamas-with-their-own-kids who run the Cove alongside the sisters, the flexible membership model that respects real mom life, and Christie’s quiet reflection on why building something that is HERS mattered more than anything after a life change she did not see coming.

I visited The Cove during the Money Hungry Mama Tour. These sisters opened their doors to our community. Now we open our audience to them.

For every mama who has been quietly waiting for someone else to build the thing she needs. The person building it next might as well be you. 💛

Find The Cove: @thecovecarlsbad on Instagram | thecove.work

Every woman you have ever watched command a room has one.

Leslie Jesperson’s is a pair of glitter boots.
Mine is a pair of heart glasses.
Yours might be a lipstick. A pair of earrings. A certain blazer. A ring you only wear when you need to channel the version of you who does not flinch.

The Activator.

Leslie teaches it. I live it. And this week on the podcast, we had the conversation I did not know I needed about why some women light up a room the second they walk in — and the specific, intentional, embodied practice behind it.

Leslie Jesperson is a speaking coach. A 30-year performer. The founder of The Everyday Celebrity. She has been paid to be on stages since she was NINE years old. And she teaches women how to be undeniable in rooms where they used to feel invisible.

Here is the sentence she dropped on me that I have been thinking about every day since:

“You don’t ask to be chosen. You position yourself to be the undeniable choice.”

In this episode we unpack what that actually means. The Activator — the physical signal to your nervous system that YOU are her now. The somatic work that happens BEFORE you walk into the room (because your body does not know there is no tiger, and breathing is not enough). The alter ego practice that lets you show up on your worst, most bloated, most emotionally depleted day and still command the stage.

Plus — the unhinged thing Leslie did to get invited to speak at a major conference (she bought a ticket to an event she did not need, drove herself to New York City, picked up a speaker she had never met from her hotel, and became her plus-one — and it worked). The difference between SPEAKING as service and trauma-dumping as introduction. Why you have to be able to watch yourself back before you can expect anyone else to. And what it actually took Leslie to build the business she has today, after a hurricane, a corporate job that paid fourteen dollars an hour, and starting over with nothing but her mom’s basement and Facebook Live. 💛

For every mama who has ever walked into a room feeling like a smaller version of herself. The woman you want to be is already in you. The Activator is how you turn her on.

Find Leslie: @lesliejespersen on Instagram | theeverydaycelebrity.com | her book, The Everyday Celebrity, available for pre-order now.

Beth and her co-founder, work wife, and co-author Victoria have built AND sold two consulting businesses together.

They are also the authors of Entrepreneur Like a Mother — one of the first serious business books written for mothers who want to build, scale, and sell real companies.

The book is out in the world now. And on this week’s episode, Brittany sits down with Beth to talk shop — one author six weeks post-launch, the other a month into hers, both honest about what it actually takes to write a book while raising kids, keeping businesses alive, and refusing to pretend any of it is easy.

If you have ever quietly wondered if you have a book in you, this episode is your masterclass.

Here is what Beth said that stopped me cold:

“A hundred and eighty rejections for five yeses. I got rejected by people I knew very well. I got ghosted. I got sent to other people. I’ve never been rejected more in my life. I cold-called a thousand clients once. I think the rejection rate on launching this book was still higher.”

That is the real math. And nobody tells you that at the start.

In this episode, Beth and Brittany break down the actual tactics behind a book launch that works. Bulk buys and how to turn a speaking fee into 500 copies sold. The advanced reader copy strategy and the four asks that make it real. Why bookstore signings are usually not the move and what to do instead. The 12,000 copies in one week truth about bestseller lists. Why mission-based books outperform ambition-based books. And the book proposal exercise that reveals whether you really have a book in you.

Woven throughout — the universal business lessons that apply to every mama building anything. Beth and Victoria’s macro and micro pivot rule: when a problem isn’t moving, do the exact opposite of what you have been doing. The one hard thing a day rule for drowning mompreneurs. And the rejection is redirection reframe that keeps you going when the no’s are stacking.

For every mama carrying a book-shaped dream in her chest. And every mama sick of the overnight-success lie, ready to hear what the real work actually looks like. 💛

Find Beth and Victoria: femalemavericks.com | Entrepreneur Like a Mother available wherever books are sold | Beth’s Substack: Sellable

Money Hungry Mama Book - https://www.amazon.com/Money-Hungry-Mama-Ultimate-Looking/dp/B0FTLRBSLF