Emilia D’Anzica has spent her career building and leading teams in tech, while raising two daughters and a bonus son. She earned her MBA, started her own business, and eventually co-authored Pressing On as a Tech Mom. After watching women leave tech in huge numbers during the pandemic, she and co-author Sabina Pons surveyed more than 300 women around the world to understand what was pushing working moms out and what helped others stay.

Emilia talks about returning to work after just five and a half weeks with her baby, the heartbreak of realizing her daughter preferred the nanny after years of work travel, and the working-mom guilt that can keep you up at night wondering how much you’re missing. She also shares the workplace double standards that made leaving at 5:30 for daycare pickup feel unacceptable, why she eventually left corporate life, and how parenting has changed as her daughters have gotten older.

From learning to give less advice and ask more questions to building a career with more room for family, Emilia shares what she wishes more working moms knew: there is no one right path, and none of us are meant to do this alone.

Jump into the conversation:

(00:00) Meet Emilia D’Anzica
(03:37) Building a career and family in tech

(06:26) Why she wrote Pressing On as a Tech Mom

(11:40) Are workplaces actually changing for moms?

(14:01) The guilt that keeps working moms up

(14:46) Calling out workplace double standards

(20:53) How motherhood changes as kids get older

(23:00) Giving less advice and asking more questions

(27:25) How Emilia found her voice as a woman in tech

(34:13) Building the next chapter of her career

(38:48) Why working moms need each other

(40:04) Save of the week

Connect with Mallory Lee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorylee/

Connect with Shannon Curran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-sweeny-curran/

Connect with Emilia D’Anzica: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emiliadanzica/

Check out Emiliadanzica.com: https://emiliadanzica.com/

Get Pressing ON as a Tech Mom: https://a.co/d/03Zrx10A

Produced in partnership with Share Your Genius

www.shareyourgenius.com

Susanna Hunter has spent more than 10 years at Salesforce, where she’s now a VP of HR supporting a global organization of 10,000 people. She’s also raising four-year-old twins and a new baby, living on an intergenerational family compound, writing songs, doing stand-up comedy, and sharing the very real side of working motherhood on LinkedIn.

Susanna talks about the mom rage she once thought was hers alone, why her second postpartum experience has felt completely different from her first, and how she’s learned she doesn’t have to lose herself after having kids. She also shares the practical systems behind making their life work, including paid childcare, dividing responsibilities with her husband, a weekly house meeting, and removing the tiny recurring decisions that used to create friction at home.

Jump into the conversation:

(00:00) Meet Susanna Hunter

(04:33) Building an intergenerational family compound

(09:09) How motherhood rewired her brain

(15:00) Talking openly about mom rage

(21:38) Her surprisingly positive postpartum experience

(25:13) Staying connected to yourself after kids

(27:41) What it actually takes to make it work

(30:40) Taking a four-week-old baby to a festival

(33:00) Why she embraced vibe parenting

(36:13) Navigating work travel with three kids

(38:46) Being a Salesforce VP on Mom LinkedIn

(41:40) The systems that keep their family running

(47:40) Save of the week

Connect with Mallory Lee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorylee/

Connect with Shannon Curran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-sweeny-curran/

Connect with Susanna Hunter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susannahuntercoaching/

Check out Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/ap/?ir=1

Produced in partnership with Share Your Genius

www.shareyourgenius.com

Nicole Ramirez spent 15 years in journalism and marketing, including a stint as director of marketing for Forbes, before a layoff in July 2024 sent her back to LinkedIn to job hunt.

Instead, she built a following from 2,000 to 50,000 in two years and turned it into a full-time business helping women in corporate, out of corporate, or just starting to build an online brand to show up and get noticed.

Nicole shares the framework she uses with clients (educate, entertain, inspire), why she thinks about content as a strategy instead of just something to push out, how she coaches people through comments before a post goes live, and what she actually tracks instead of obsessing over follower count.

Jump into the conversation:

(00:00) Meet Nicole Ramirez

(01:29) The Google Doc post that went viral

(06:44) Who she actually works with on LinkedIn

(09:53) The journey from journalism to Forbes

(13:15) How she grew to fifty thousand followers

(15:40) How motherhood changed her content

(16:49) The beach chicken post that went nationwide

(24:26) Her childcare setup with her father-in-law

(34:53) Coaching clients through personal brand crises

(38:52) The post that hit five million impressions

(39:38) What to track instead of follower count

(43:47) Save of the week

Connect with Mallory Lee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorylee/

Connect with Shannon Curran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-sweeny-curran/

Connect with Nicole Ramirez: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoleramirez-personal-brand-expert/

Check out NR Digital Consulting: http://nrdigitalconsulting.com

Produced in partnership with Share Your Genius

www.shareyourgenius.com

Jessica Winder built a career out of learning exactly how corporate America works, then decided to teach other people how to work it too.

She is Chief People Officer at her Winder Law Firm, a career coach, and mom of four, including two sets of twins born seventeen months apart. After building an entire household team to make her career and her family both possible—from a live-in house manager to a set of core work hours she and her husband both protect—she started talking openly on LinkedIn about what she saw behind the curtain of HR. That honesty turned into a podcast, a speaking career, and a client list full of women trying to get promoted, come back from maternity leave, or figure out if they want to come back at all.

Jessica shares why she believes the 40 hour work week was never built for people with families, and why she thinks having it all really just means paying other people to help you get it. She also explains what she tells women before they go on maternity leave, how she decides which coaching clients are actually the right fit for her, and why she tells everyone to get the title before they ever think about getting the raise.

Jump into the conversation:

(00:00) Meet Jessica Winder

(04:45) On having two sets of twins in seventeen months

(07:26) The team behind the scenes at home

(12:12) How much she and her husband actually work

(16:47) Her two maternity leaves and what she would tell other moms

(23:40) From ranting on LinkedIn to building a media business

(26:23) Why the 40 hour workweek was never built for parents

(28:39) Inside her podcast, Make It Make Sense

(32:40) Coaching moms through the decision to go back to work

(35:44) How to know if your career coach actually knows what they are doing

(41:00) Why you should get the title before you get the raise

(43:57) Save of the week

Connect with Mallory Lee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorylee/

Connect with Shannon Curran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-sweeny-curran/

Connect with Jessica Winder: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicadwinder/

Check out Winder Law Firm: https://www.linkedin.com/company/winder-law-firm/

Produced in partnership with Share Your Genius

www.shareyourgenius.com

Heather Bell spent years in tech sales as the only woman in leadership, and now works in MarTech at Vector after building her career at OpenTable. After years of watching gender shape who got access to relationships and opportunities on sales teams, she began rethinking what she actually needed from a job to stay in the industry long term. Her search for the right fit included being the only woman in leadership at a security tech company, hiding that she was a mom during interviews, and leaving a role once she realized her sponsor could not take her to the after hours meetings where relationships and opportunities actually got built.

Heather shares why she finally stopped trying to be the torch bearer for every woman in the room, and what she looks for now so she's never the only woman or the only working parent in leadership again. She also explains why remote work became less about convenience and more about equity, how she uses the same skills from sales leadership to advocate for her son at school, and why something as small as a company's swag closet can reveal whether its values are real.

Jump into the conversation:

(00:00) Meet Heather Bell
(01:27) Working in tech sales at Vector and OpenTable
(05:13) On being the only woman in leadership
(07:01) The day she left a company that couldn't sponsor her
(07:46) How to find a workplace built differently
(13:39) Choosing remote work for the childhood she wanted
(14:55) Ruling out companies over the commute
(19:22) Being open about motherhood in interviews
(21:02) Why Heather refuses to carry the torch alone
(33:49) Advocating for her son like a sales leader
(36:34) How to build a community with other moms
(39:10) Save of the week

Connect with Mallory Lee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorylee/

Connect with Shannon Curran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-sweeny-curran/

Connect with Heather Bell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherbell-sales/

Check out Vector: https://vector.co

Produced in partnership with Share Your Genius

www.shareyourgenius.com

What are the baby and kid products that actually make motherhood easier, and which ones are just expensive things you thought you needed?

Mallory Lee and Shannon Curran swap their favorite parenting saves, from baby medicine baskets and stretchy pajamas to carriers, strollers, wagons, monitors, and the surprisingly valuable gift of an Uber Eats card. They share the products they kept reaching for, the purchases they would skip now, and the lessons they wish they had known before building a registry that cost thousands of dollars.

Throughout the conversation, they compare notes on baby gear, hand me downs, sleep struggles, kid technology, screen time, family calendars, and the everyday systems that help working moms keep things moving.

If you're a working mom, new parent, or simply trying to figure out what is actually worth buying for your family, this episode is a candid look at the favorite saves that earned their place in the house.

Jump into the conversation:

(00:00) Intro

(03:08) Building the perfect baby medicine basket

(04:58) The baby pajamas that actually last

(08:00) The traveling bassinet everyone shared

(11:44) The baby gear that becomes essential

(16:27) Finding what actually works for sleep

(19:43) Which strollers are really worth it

(25:22) The baby carrier worth every cent

(32:57) Raising kids with less screen time

(37:03) Family systems that make parenting easier

Connect with Mallory Lee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorylee/

Connect with Shannon Curran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-sweeny-curran/

Produced in partnership with Share Your Genius

www.shareyourgenius.com

Alli Tunell spent years working toward becoming a CMO. Then motherhood changed what the right career looked like.

She is Head of Content at Animalz, former host of the Shifting Priorities podcast, and mom of two. After the transition to motherhood rocked her expectations, she began rethinking the career path she had planned since her early twenties. Her search for the right fit included managing a team during the tech downturn, hiding that she was a mom during an interview, and joining a company where 70-hour workweeks were the norm.

Alli shares why accepting that careers happen in seasons gave her permission to choose work that supported her family without seeing it as a loss of ambition. She also explains why flexibility is only part of the equation, how a company’s values shape the employee experience, and why working parents should not have to apologize for how they manage their time.

Jump into the conversation:

(00:00) Meet Alli Tunell

(04:30) Career ambitions before motherhood

(06:55) When motherhood changed the plan

(08:17) Hiding motherhood in a 70-hour workplace

(10:55) Accepting careers happen in seasons

(15:57) How to choose work that fits your season

(19:22) Growing at home instead of work

(22:38) Why the same parenting works differently

(27:41) Every postpartum experience is different

(34:45) Stop judging how moms prioritize

(38:15) Stop apologizing for parenting at work

(46:38) Using Brick to unplug together

Connect with Mallory Lee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorylee/

Connect with Shannon Curran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-sweeny-curran/

Connect with Alli Tunell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alli-tunell/

Check out Animalz: https://www.animalz.co/

Produced in partnership with Share Your Genius

www.shareyourgenius.com

What does it take to build a successful career and scale a business without sacrificing your authentic self or taking life too seriously?

Lauren Aquilino, Co-founder & CMO of EMMIE Collective, joins Mallory Lee and Shannon Curran to talk about breaking away from "traditional" agency norms, embracing being a "personality hire" in tech, and using humor and grace as essential strategies for both business and parenting. Together, they reflect on offloading the tasks that don't serve you, why human empathy is the ultimate differentiator in the age of AI, and how to navigate working-mom life when things literally explode, like neon green slime across the living room.

Throughout the conversation, they explore overcoming founder fear, building a company culture centered on fun, handling crisis communications, and navigating the daily chaos of motherhood, picky eaters, and chronic illness with a sense of humor.

If you're a working mom, founder, or tech leader trying to scale your career while staying true to who you are, this episode offers a funny, relatable, and candid perspective on making it work in public.

Jump into the conversation:

(00:00) Intro

(01:11) Meet Lauren Aquilino and EMMIE Collective

(05:15) On crisis comms and navigating PR emergencies

(07:01) Boy mom advice and short-lived first loves

(08:29) How to build a business vs. maintaining it

(11:00) Bringing on a co-founder and scaling a team

(18:06) The "Is He Trash?" series and Pretty Funny Business

(20:16) Injecting humor and personality into B2B tech

(29:58) About gentle parenting and sibling fights

(32:15) The great neon green slime explosion

(37:43) Saves of the week

Connect with Mallory Lee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorylee/

Connect with Shannon Curran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-sweeny-curran/

Connect with Lauren Aquilino: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenaquilino/

Check out EMMIE Collective: http://www.emmieco.com

Produced in partnership with Share Your Genius

www.shareyourgenius.com