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You know that feeling when your work brain is carrying layoffs, strategy shifts, inbox fires, team decisions, and approximately 47 tabs of pressure…and then you’re supposed to close your laptop and immediately become the calm, joyful bedtime mom?
Same.
In this episode, Holly sits down with Lindsey Swedick, a startup executive, brand marketer, and mom of two, for a conversation about work, motherhood, burnout, identity, marriage, and the strange emotional whiplash of leading at work and leading at home.
Lindsey’s career has taken her from an anti-trafficking NGO in India to brands like FEED, LOLA, Coterie, Calibrate, and now Perelel Health. But this conversation isn’t just about an impressive resume. It’s about what happens when your work has always been tied to purpose, and then motherhood changes the way you understand ambition, capacity, and what actually matters.
When the Work That Once Lit You Up Starts Burning You Out
Lindsey shared about the season that finally pushed her to step away from corporate life and start consulting.
It wasn’t because she stopped loving work. It was because the pace, pressure, constant pivots, and emotional weight of leadership became too much.
She was leading brand and communications during a volatile season, navigating layoffs, shifting market demands, and internal messaging while also raising two little kids. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, the spark that had always driven her work started to fade.
That part felt so relatable.
Because sometimes burnout doesn’t look like quitting on your ambition. Sometimes it looks like realizing you can’t keep giving every part of yourself to a job and still have anything left for your actual life.
You Can Try Something New Without It Being Forever
One of the most refreshing parts of Lindsey’s story was how she talked about career pivots.
Earlier in her career, every move felt massive. Like each decision was somehow deciding the entire rest of her life.
But with time, motherhood, and a few hard seasons behind her, she started to see it differently.
You can try something.
You can change your mind.
You can do something for six months and reassess.
You can make a move because it’s what you need for this season, not because it has to define every season after it.
Honestly, that feels like a word for so many moms who are trying to figure out what work is supposed to look like now.
This Is Just a Hard Season
When Holly asked Lindsey what she does differently now as a working mom, Lindsey didn’t offer a perfect six-step system or a magical productivity hack.
She said it’s more of a mental reframe.
This is a hard season.
Not forever. Not her whole identity. Not proof that she’s failing.
Just a hard season.
And whew. That’ll preach.
Because some days you feel like you’re failing as a mom, a leader, a wife, a friend, and a human person who would maybe enjoy drinking water at some point. And then the next day, you feel like maybe you’re doing okay.
Both can be true.
The season can be hard, and you can still be doing a really good job.
Your Job Is Not Your Whole Identity
Lindsey also named something that so many high-achieving moms know deep down but still have to relearn over and over again:
It’s just a job.
That doesn’t mean the work doesn’t matter. It doesn’t mean you don’t care. It doesn’t mean you don’t give your best.
But it does mean your company is not your identity.
Your performance review is not your worth.
Your title is not your whole story.
The thing keeping you up tonight probably won’t be the thing you remember in ten years.
Motherhood has a way of forcing that reordering. Not because work stops mattering, but because suddenly your life is bigger than what happens in a meeting.
The Sunday Meeting That Might Save Your Week
One of the most practical takeaways from this episode was Lindsey and her husband Nick’s Sunday night meeting.
After the kids go to bed, they sit down with calendars, laptops, mail, invites, schedules, and anything else they need to sort through. They talk through the week ahead, the month ahead, and even the next six months.
They also use that time to talk about their kids, family rhythms, childcare, school, work travel, and anything that could otherwise become resentment by Thursday.
Is this wildly glamorous? No.
Could snacks improve it? Absolutely.
But the point is this: they have a rhythm that helps them enter Monday with less chaos and fewer assumptions.
And for moms, fewer assumptions can be a love language.
Maybe It’s Not Mom Guilt
This was one of the biggest moments in the conversation.
Lindsey shared a reframe she heard from Dr. Becky: guilt is when your actions don’t align with your values.
So when we call everything “mom guilt,” it’s worth pausing to ask: is this actually guilt?
Because for Lindsey, working hard, leading well, and modeling ambition for her kids does align with her values. She wants her kids to see a mom who can do hard things, lead in business, and lead in her family.
So maybe the feeling isn’t guilt.
Maybe it’s stress.
Maybe it’s exhaustion.
Maybe it’s anxiety.
Maybe it’s sadness.
Maybe it’s taking on emotions that were never yours to carry.
That distinction matters.
Because if something aligns with your values, you may not need to shame yourself for it. You may just need to name what you’re actually feeling and give yourself a little compassion.
You’re Not the Only One Holding Two Worlds
There’s a loneliness that can come with being a mom in leadership.
You can make big decisions all day, carry the emotional weight of your team, disagree with a decision and still have to execute it, write the layoff messaging, lead with confidence, and then somehow be expected to walk into bath time like your nervous system is totally fine.
It’s a lot.
And sometimes, it feels like no one fully understands the pressure of both worlds.
But that’s part of why this conversation matters.
Because if you’ve ever closed your laptop and thought, “No one will ever know how hard this day was,” this episode is your reminder:
You’re not doing it wrong.
You’re not the only one.
And you really are doing something impressive.
One day at a time.
Links from This Episode
Connect with Lindsey Swedick on LinkedIn.
Learn more about Perelel Health or follow along on Instagram.
Check out Perelel’s Summer Glo hydration powder and protein powder, both mentioned in this episode.
Subscribe to Get Mom Ready at GetMomReady.com so you never miss an episode or our Sunday Reset, our newsletter helping you avoid the Sunday Scaries and start the week fresh instead.
If You’re in a Season of Burnout
If this conversation hit close to home and you’re in a season of burnout, overwhelm, or “I cannot keep doing it like this,” you don’t have to sort through it alone.
Get Mom Ready coaching is here to help you take a breath, name what’s actually going on, and figure out what support, boundaries, or next steps might help you move forward with more clarity.
You can learn more about coaching by booking a call with Meredith or send us a DM on Instagram @getmomready.
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