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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

Samantha spent her first year in business selling five-dollar-a-month idea packs for parents who wanted alternatives to screen time. Plenty of subscribers. Not enough to self-sustain. So when she got laid off and had to decide — go all-in on the dream or go find another job — she did something most entrepreneurs refuse to do. She went back to her actual customers and asked: what do you really want? And here is what they told her: "We do not want more ideas. We want things DONE for us." That answer is the entire reason Beyond the Screen Families exists in the form it does today. In this episode, Brittany sits down with Samantha — a 20+ year educator (teacher, administrator, higher ed, educational publishing professional) and the founder of Beyond the Screen Families — to unpack the pivot that transformed her entire business. She sunset the five-dollar idea pack entirely. She built an in-person after-school enrichment program that is now the premier offering in her part of Southern California. And she created activity boxes designed around prompts instead of instructions — because the real learning happens in the trial and error, not in following step-by-step directions. Here is the business lesson every mompreneur listening needs to hear: Your customer does not want more learning. She wants transformation delivered. Plus: why Samantha had to let go of her control factor and let other teachers run her enrichment programs (the weight that lifted the moment she stopped teaching every class herself), how 20+ years of lived education experience became the foundation of her business (a reinforcement of The Skill You're Standing On), the story of her daughter's "clay class" where the teacher just sat and watched an iPad teach the kids, why in-person service businesses are the one thing AI can't take, and the networking play that unlocked her entire business. For every mama whose current offer isn't landing. The answer isn't more ideas. 💛 Find Samantha: @beyondthescreenfamilies on Instagram

If you are 38 and quietly wondering if you missed your window —If you are 43 and thinking "this cannot be all I was built for" —If you are 51 and looking around at the life you built one brick at a time, feeling the pull of more —If you are 55 and starting to whisper "what if I just... began again?" — Mama, this episode is for you. Emily Keltz did not expect to start over at 43. She had three children. Fifteen years at home with the kids. A marriage. A life she had been building one brick at a time for two decades. And then, as happens for so many women somewhere between 35 and 55, something inside her said "this is not it." What Emily did next — the career tries, the pivots that didn't stick, the certifications earned slowly, the quiet patient work of rebuilding her own power — became the entire foundation of her business today. She is now the founder of Empowered by Emily, an NLP practitioner, a certified life coach, a certified relationship coach, and the creator of The Divorce Detox — a program for women navigating midlife reinvention, whether they are staying in a season, leaving one, or just quietly stuck. Note Emily's own words, carefully: "I'm not advocating that route for anybody. I support women in finding their power within and channeling that — whether they're staying, whether they're leaving, whether they're just feeling stuck or unfulfilled." In this episode, Brittany sits down with Emily to unpack the slow, patient work of reinvention. The career tries that didn't stick. The ones that did. The grace required to build a business on top of lived experience. The science of why healing takes time. And the truth Emily carries into every session: You can rewrite the next chapter at any age. Starting right now. Plus: why Emily teaches women to look for GREEN flags in relationships (not just red ones), the surprisingly simple sales reframe Brittany teaches live on the episode (stop using I and me in your captions), how Emily built an entire coaching business on top of 20+ years of lived expertise, the first three to five years of business as the real survival window, and why Emily is wary of coaches who gloat about numbers and promise magical results. For every mama 35 to 55 who has been quietly wondering if it is too late. It is not. 💛 Find Emily: @empowered.byemily on Instagram | thedivorcedetox.com Money Hungry Mama BOOK - https://a.co/d/04HXaEwG

Kathleen and Melanie were maid-of-honor-level best friends BEFORE they started a business together. Then they started Explore the Americas — a custom Latin America travel company built from a scuba certification, a shared love of the Ava Brothers, and a decision to leap during the hardest possible moment to launch a travel business. And here is what nobody in the mompreneur space tells you: partnering with your best friend can either be the smartest thing you ever do, or the fastest way to lose both the business AND the friendship. Kathleen and Melanie figured out the difference. In this episode, Brittany sits down with both of them to unpack the surprisingly practical playbook that has protected their friendship AND their company at the same time. Slack for business, WhatsApp for friendship. Different channels. Explicit permission before crossing them. Weekly team meetings where they play Two Truths and a Lie. Virtual yoga taught by their Bolivia-based team member. Culture of joy on purpose. And when I asked them what the biggest risk they had ever taken was, Kathleen said the answer I did not expect: "Starting a travel business in the middle of a global pandemic. But there is no reward without risk." This is the conversation for the mama who has been quietly considering going into business with her best friend, her sister, her cousin, her neighbor. And for the mama who has been considering it and BACKING away because she is scared of the friendship blowing up. Both fears are valid. Kathleen and Melanie's playbook makes both fears solvable. Plus: how they built the whole business standing on their existing tourism expertise (a beautiful reinforcement of The Skill You're Standing On), why their biggest clients are busy professional moms who want the ease of a Disney trip but the meaning of Latin America travel, the trade-show networking play that turned into their entire supplier network, why word-of-mouth built the whole business before they spent a dollar on ads, and the "you cannot Google your way to expertise — you have to actually GO there" advice for anyone selling anything experiential. For every mama with a business dream she cannot start alone. 💛 Find Kathleen and Melanie: @explorethamericastravel on Instagram | exploretheamericastravel.com Grab the Money Hungry Mama Guide - https://a.co/d/06eazQVu

Every mompreneur has an ask she has been afraid to send. The DM to the dream brand. The pitch to the local business. The email to the podcast host. The request to the school district. The sponsorship inquiry to the neighborhood pizzeria. And most of us never send it. Because we walk into the ask thinking about what we NEED — and forget to think about what we can OFFER. Mandy is here to fix that. Mandy is a sports mom, a 20+ year magazine publishing and marketing pro, and the founder of Sponsor My Athlete — a 60-minute online course teaching parents how to get local businesses to sponsor their kids' athletic expenses. Not through fundraisers. Not through popcorn sales. Not through donations. Through marketing partnerships. In this episode of The Money Hungry Mama Podcast, Brittany sits down with Mandy to break down the ask-reframe that changes everything: "Don't walk in and say, can you give us $250 for our season. Walk in and say, here's what we can offer YOU." That single shift is the difference between crickets and $4,000-a-month recurring sponsorship deals for kids' teams. And here's the thing, mama — it applies far beyond sports. If you have ever wanted to pitch a brand collaboration, ask a local business to sponsor your event, land a podcast guest spot, get featured in a magazine, or make ANY ask that felt too big — Mandy's framework works. Because the psychology of the ask is universal. Plus: how Mandy built the whole business using her existing PR skillset (proof of The Skill You're Standing On), the 20-minutes-a-day method that lands sponsorships between carpool runs, why she priced her course at $249 on purpose (Brittany affirms this with her own Money Hungry Mama Table story), the chamber-and-BNI networking play that gets you in front of decision-makers, why in-person asks with your kid present are near-impossible to turn down, and the money lessons Mandy is teaching her 11-year-old through this exact process. For every mama sitting on an ask she's been too scared to send — reframe it. And send it. 💛 Find Mandy: @carpoolstocontracts on Instagram | sponsormyathlete.com Grab a copy of The Money Hungry Mama- https://www.amazon.com/Money-Hungry-Mama-Ultimate-Looking/dp/B0FTLRBSLF

Every wellness voice in the mompreneur space will tell you to practice self-care. Take a bath. Put your phone away. Tune out. Jyoti calls it something completely different. And once you hear it, you cannot un-hear it. "I don't call it self-care. I call it presence with yourself. It's not about tuning out. It's about tuning in — to what you actually need, not the noise of what everybody else needs." Jyoti is the founder of The Beauty Way — a clean, non-toxic body care line paired with daily mantras designed for busy mamas who cannot commit to 30-minute meditations or weekly yoga classes but who desperately need a moment of themselves in the day. She built the whole company as a stay-at-home mom with a one-year-old daughter and a three-year-old son. She started while showering. She built while nap-timing. And she launched with an audience she had spent SIX MONTHS quietly cultivating before the products were even ready. In this episode of The Money Hungry Mama Podcast, Brittany sits down with Jyoti to talk about the daily practice that changes everything: the shower ritual with a mantra, the "Sunday reset" that goes on the family calendar, the difference between martyr-mom self-care and the kind of presence that actually feeds you. Plus: how Jyoti's mom modeled radical self-care in the 80s and 90s before anyone was talking about it, why she emailed Oprah Daily's director and got a response within 30 minutes (the audacious ask lives on), the six-month audience buildup that made her launch actually LAND, why she refuses to make fear-based decisions, and why she believes women building wealth is one of the most powerful movements happening in the world right now. For every mama who has been told to "practice self-care" and quietly wondered why it never actually feels like a break. 💛 Find Jyoti: @thebeautyway_co on Instagram | thebeautywayco.com Grab your copy of The Money Hungry Mama Guide -  https://a.co/d/04HXaEwG

Every episode of this podcast has featured a mama hungry for income. Growth. Freedom. More. Jessica is hungry for something else entirely. She is a 22-year registered nurse. She has spent two decades sitting with people during their worst moments — illness, loss, suffering. And two years ago she decided she wanted to be part of someone's HAPPIEST moments instead. So she launched Blooming Rose Paint and Create. A birthday party and craft-event business. Not to replace her nursing income. Not to scale to seven figures. Not to quit her day job. For joy. In this episode of The Money Hungry Mama Podcast, Brittany sits down with Jessica to talk about the version of mompreneurship almost nobody names — the one that isn't about the money at all. The one that is about JOY. About community. About being fully present in the version of yourself that gets to CREATE something instead of just survive it. And here is what stopped me cold when Jessica answered the "what does being a Money Hungry Mama mean to you" question: "To me it means chasing your dreams. Not necessarily wealth. I'm hungry for joy and happiness and fulfillment. Freedom as far as being with your kids more. And having that with your kids right beside you." Mama, if you have been feeling like a fraud in the mompreneur space because you don't want to build a seven-figure empire — this episode is your permission slip. You can be hungry for JOY. That counts. Plus: how Jessica started her whole business with a Canva flyer and 4 moms at a playground, the collaboration-over-competition mindset that has grown her network, the maternity leave comeback (three weeks postpartum with a stuffy party!) and what she wishes she had known, why her 8-year-old daughter is already in training to inherit the business, and the honest conversation about how HARD it is to come back after a leave when the algorithm has moved on without you. For every mama whose hustle is her happy place. This one is for you. 💛 Find Jessica: @thebloomingrosepaintandcreate on Instagram

I said something in this week's episode that I did not realize was a confession. I told my guest that I only use AI for "silly things." Outfit ideas. Recipe swaps. Silly little searches while I fold laundry. She stopped me cold. "Brittany, what you're calling silly? That's someone else's business. When you look up outfits, someone's outfit business gets found. When you search for a gift, someone's gift business gets found. Your silly is someone else's product being discovered." Mama. Chills. In this episode of The Money Hungry Mama Podcast, I sit down with Lexi Birmingham — a former corporate sales VP who quit her 15-year job during maternity leave, taught herself Claude in six months while her son slept, and built Bermo Co: a talent growth marketplace that runs on custom AI infrastructure. Lexi is the smartest AI voice I have talked to in months. She is not the person telling you to let AI write your captions. She is the person teaching you how to build an AI infrastructure that runs your business behind the scenes while you keep your voice, your writing, and your family time completely intact. This is the conversation for the mama who has been told to STAY AWAY from AI — but who is quietly worried she is being left behind. Both things can be true. AI can be a threat to your authentic voice AND the most powerful business infrastructure you have ever had access to. Lexi teaches you how to hold both. Plus: the six months she spent on maternity leave learning Claude, how she cut 90% of her business subscriptions by building her own AI tools, why GEO is replacing SEO (and what 60% of your buyers are actually searching), the "gap scan" she runs for startups that surfaces where their revenue is quietly slipping, and the "lobster roll in Miami" moment where she decided to quit her corporate job for good. For every mama who has been afraid of AI. And every mama who is quietly wondering if she should be more afraid of being LEFT BEHIND by it. 💛 Find Lexi: @bermo.co on Instagram | bermoco.com Pre-Order The Money Hungry Mama Guide - https://a.co/d/04HXaEwG

You looked down at your baby and something pulled — I don't want to leave her. I want to figure out how to stay. This is Episode 100, and it's for the mom who refuses to choose between being present and providing. If you've felt the guilt of maternity leave ending, the ache of daycare drop-off, or that quiet fire that lit the day you became a mom — this one will find you. Brittany shares the urgent care moment that started it all ("with every mouth comes a loaf of bread"), why the pull to stay home isn't selfish, and how she built a work-from-home life so she never had to hand her kids to someone else. For every mom searching for a side hustle, a work-from-home income, or a way off the maternity-leave cliff — there's a third door, and it's not on the menu they gave you. 🎧 Then join the FREE Find Your Perfect Hustle class on September 17 — https://themoneyhungrymama.myflodesk.com/freewebinar Stay hungry, mama

I have a confession, mama. Before I built The Money Hungry Mama into what it is today, I tried thirty side hustles. Thirty. Because every time I saw someone else winning at something new, I thought I could do that too. I chased every shiny thing. I burned out. I quit. I started over. I called it "figuring things out." Meanwhile, this week's guest was quietly doing something I could not do at the time. Vanessa Rose Watts is the owner of Pumpkin Lee Prints — a custom invitation and event design business she has been building for twenty years. No storefront. No website (still doesn't have one, four years into planning to make one). No TikTok dances. No viral trends. No pivots. No off-ramps. Just twenty years of the same beautiful work, done a little better every year. In this episode of The Money Hungry Mama Podcast, Brittany sits down with Vanessa Rose to talk about the growth philosophy that saved her from every trap most mompreneurs fall into — and gave Brittany the words for what she wishes someone had told her ten years ago. "Stay in your lane. When you're ready to grow, make it a two-lane road. Then a three-lane road. But it's still YOUR road. It's branches off the same tree — not nine different plants in your garden." This is the conversation for the mama who has been chasing every trend, jumping between hustles, exhausted from being pulled in a thousand directions — and quietly wondering if there is a different way. There is. Vanessa Rose has been living it for two decades. Plus: how she built her business entirely on word-of-mouth and referrals (no paid ads, no dance trends), why "being your own marketing" beats copying what everyone else is doing, the elementary teacher pivot that changed her life, how to know when it's time to expand your lane, why the "excited bug" of trying every new thing is the biggest threat to your business, and why the mama who says yes to less makes more. For every mama who has been made to feel like her slow build is falling behind. It's not. It's compounding. 💛 Find Vanessa Rose: @pumpkinlyprints on Instagram Website: Pumpkinlypaperie.com The Money Hungry Mama Guide — coming Sept 8, 2026. https://a.co/d/04HXaEwG Fb group → https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FVmxXpM3J/

Before Estee Levin had her son, she said yes to every opportunity that came her way. Every wedding. Every late night. Every gig that was tired-but-worth-it. Every stress filled overworked opportunity that felt like it might lead somewhere. She never said no. Then she became a mother. And motherhood did not restrict her business — it did something much more powerful. It refined what she was willing to say yes to. In this episode, Brittany sits down with Estee Levin — host of Not Your Average Mom Pod, a full-time PR professional, and the owner of her own wedding planning business — to break down the principle that most mompreneurs never fully name for themselves: The Refined Yes. Motherhood does not shrink your ambition, mama. It sharpens it. Every yes now has to earn its place around your family. Every opportunity has to fit the season you're in. Every chase has to be worth the hour it will take from someone you love. The mama who says yes to less makes more — because every yes she gives is now aimed. This is the conversation for the mompreneur who has been drowning in commitments she said yes to for the wrong reasons, the mama who has been comparing her pace to her pre-baby self, and the woman who needs permission to want less and mean it more. Plus: how Estee grew up in the wedding industry (her dad co-owned a Jersey wedding boat), why the best wedding planners come from the venue side, how to start a wedding planning side hustle without quitting your day job, the two-weddings-a-month rhythm that works around family life, why she did her first solo wedding for FREE and what it opened up, and the boundary shift most first-time moms don't see coming. For every mama whose yes has been costing her family more than it earns. 💛 Find Estee: @notyouraveragemompod on Instagram  The Money Hungry Mama Guide — coming Sept 8, 2026 https://a.co/d/04HXaEwG

Your audience is not ignoring you, mama. They are counting. Modern consumers need to see your content, your message, your name, or your product roughly 24 times before they take action. Twenty-four touch points. That's not a psychological quirk — that's the math of an oversaturated attention economy where every mama scrolling has 40 open tabs in her brain at any moment. Most mompreneurs quit at touch point 6, 8, maybe 12 — because the silence feels like proof that nobody cares. The silence doesn't mean nobody cares. The silence means they haven't hit their threshold yet. In this episode, Brittany sits down with Lisa Vara — the owner of Lux Virtual Services and a mama who launched her whole business at 55 after a divorce forced her hand — to break down The 24-Touch Truth: the principle that separates the mompreneurs who quit at post #12 from the mompreneurs who quietly build empires by post #24. Lisa built her business almost entirely on word of mouth + consistent Instagram + one incredible networking event. No paid ads. No massive social budget. Just consistent, patient showing up until the right people found her. If you have ever felt invisible on social media, if you have ever wondered whether your content is even landing, if you have ever wanted to quit because nothing seems to be working — this episode is your permission slip to keep going. Plus: how Lisa turned 35 years of admin expertise into a business almost overnight, why networking events pay for themselves ten times over, why the "if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room" rule applies to every mom in business, what to look for when hiring your first virtual assistant, and Lisa's honest advice to any mama trying to make her first $500 online. For every mama who is showing up when it feels like no one is watching. Keep going. They're counting. 💛 Find Lisa: @luxevirtualservices on Instagram | luxevirtualservices.com

Sami Sopko is a mom of three from Cleveland and a co-founder of BuilderBox — a STEM learning kit built for kids (including neurodivergent kids) who don't want to follow the "rules" of a typical activity box. Earlier this year, she had a crazy idea. What if she DM'd a famous celebrity from her hometown and asked him to help her get her boxes into local school districts? Two moms from Cleveland. One short DM. Sent to someone she'd never met. Within a few minutes, he responded: "I got you." The video announcing the donation got 32 million views in a single day. In this episode, Sami — a listener-turned-guest and one of Brittany's own audience members — walks Brittany through the entire story, the philosophy behind BuilderBox, and the principle that changed the trajectory of her whole business: the audacious ask. Most mompreneurs never ask. They don't send the DM. They don't email the school district. They don't reach out to the sponsor. Because they assume the answer will be no. Sami is proof that the mama who asks is the mama who builds something extraordinary. Plus: how she built BuilderBox from her garage as a mom of three, why she started marketing on Instagram BEFORE the product was ready, why she deliberately chose NOT to do a subscription model, how she's building for neurodivergent kids first, the co-founder dynamic that makes her business work, and why motherhood has actually made her a BETTER CEO than she was pre-kids. For every mama sitting on a DM she's been too scared to send. Send it. 💛 Find Sami: @builderboxco on Instagram | builderboxco.com Free Fb group https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FVmxXpM3J/ 📘 The Money Hungry Mama Guide — coming Sept 8, 2026https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/money-hungry-mama-brittany-plumeri/1148503744

Most business advice tells you to be likable. To smooth your edges. To attract "everyone." Alesha Courtney did the opposite — and built a thriving online health coaching business helping women ditch diet culture and stop calorie counting for good. In this episode of The Money Hungry Mama Podcast, Alesha — a nutritionist, personal trainer, dog mama, and former brick-and-mortar studio owner — tells Brittany why being opinionated is not a bug, it's the whole strategy. Alesha filters aggressively. She has strong opinions. She loses followers on purpose. And her ideal clients find her BECAUSE of it, not despite it. This is the conversation for the mompreneur who has been softening her voice, hedging her opinions, and trying to please everyone — and quietly wondering why her business isn't landing. Plus: how Alesha turned her own eating disorder recovery into a decade-long career, why she closed her all-women's studio after COVID and went fully online, how she built a personal brand that AI can't touch, why 2026 is the year of storytelling and human-first content, and her simple advice to every woman thinking about starting: just start. Start messy. F* perfectionism. For every mama who has been told to be less — and is finally ready to be more of who she already is. 💛 Find Alesha: @alesha_courtney on Instagram Free MHM Fb grouphttps://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FVmxXpM3J/ 📘 The Money Hungry Mama Ultimate Guide — coming Sept 8, 2026https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/money-hungry-mama-brittany-plumeri/1148503744