Lifting Each Other Up and Saying Goodbye to Mom Guilt with Corina Tripon
This episode’s guest, Corina Tripon
A growth coach and founder of Ginger Root Society.
Episode Description
If you have even an ember of desire to start a business or nurture your ambitions, this episode is for you. Guilt is one of the most difficult obstacles working moms face, but we can still choose our careers AND our children. It’s a myth as old as time itself – but today’s guest, Corina Tripon, has beautiful advice to share for working around it.
Corina is a growth coach, empowerment speaker, community builder, and founder of the Ginger Root Society, a coaching community for female entrepreneurs looking to build businesses that align with their faith. She’s also the mom to two sweet, charming boys.
Her biggest piece of advice for fighting the ever-encroaching mom guilt? Surround yourself with other women like yourself. We are worth the investment. It is safe to ask for help!
Normalizing the realities of motherhood
When Corina had her first son, her life’s purpose became more intense. All of a sudden, she saw the generation coming after her, and the life she lived had bigger consequences and bigger implications.
Previously, she’d held a flexible job working for entrepreneurs in which she was a “Jane-of-all-trades,” but was increasingly feeling like she was hiding in the shadows, playing the supporting role to other people’s successes. Corina wanted to be in the forefront and have something she could call her own. Her business, Ginger Root Society, was born.
Unlike so many women, Corina never felt like mothering her child was in competition with her professional ambition. She was honoring the calling of her life, and she felt this call was also going to make the world a better place. Perhaps, the difference? She was surrounded by other women who were not letting guilt factor too heavily into their decisions.
Surrounding herself with these inspiring women was an intentional act after moving to San Diego and not knowing anyone. Her community meets weekly and they help one another. Sometimes it involves determining a marketing solution, and sometimes it’s providing emotional support for another mother who’s in the fog. For all of them, meeting and sharing their stories normalizes the day-to-day struggles and ups and downs of motherhood.
“When I have vulnerable conversations with other women, that they are doing the same balancing act – all of a sudden, you realize, this is just part of that process,” Corina says.
So much of what we talked about resonated with me and my own goals of starting Project: Mom. Meeting other mothers and learning that their experiences are similar to my own has been deeply satisfying. There’s a stigma that you need to put yourself on hold when you have a child, and that’s just not true.
There’s no clear-cut way to be a mother and an entrepreneur. It’s going to look messy, and that’s okay!
Asking for help
After quitting her job, Corina was fired up to start her own business, putting crazy expectations onto herself and creating unrealistic revenue goals – only to be disappointed.
Now she’s not surprised those expectations weren’t met. She hadn’t given herself the resources she needed to succeed – notably, time to focus on her business, and only her business!
“Nobody taught me you’re allowed to invest in your business before your business even has a chance of creating any sort of profit. And guess what? Having childcare is an investment,” Corina says.
Her advice?
Don’t feel the shame of not supporting yourself financially, because that’s an unrealistic expectation. Creating a wildly successful business takes time and investments of all kinds.
“Women, so often, just think they should be doing it all. They don’t want to burden people by asking for help. And I think the most dangerous part of that is it teaches other women in our friendships and networks that they shouldn’t be asking for help, either,” Corina says.
Well shit, did anyone else get goosebumps? This rang very true for me. What’s more, I didn’t even realize those feelings were there. At the time, I was surrounded by people who were doing what they were doing so gracefully. There wasn’t a lot of truth or vulnerability shared with me ahead of time.
Sometimes it’s hard to ask for help because we don’t know what it is we need help with. And that’s normal – but it’s also why we can’t do it all alone.
It starts with you
How do you find your tribe and the resources to invest in your business? The answer is simple. It starts with you.
Determine what gives purpose to your life. Every time you make a decision honoring that passion, you maintain alignment. It’s so easy to make the “rational” decisions, decisions that make sense for someone else, but in order to succeed, you need to follow your gut.
And you need to do it wholeheartedly, because if you don’t, it's possible you’ll buffer yourself. You’ll keep yourself from women who are doing what you’re doing. You’ll keep yourself from having vulnerable conversations with your partner. You’ll keep yourself from building the life you dreamed of.
“Let your mind imagine what it would be like to have a support system, to have other women, other moms, who are bringing their kids along for their coworking dates. Allow yourself to even envision a life where you are doing both motherhood and running a business. And the rest of the people really will show up. But it starts with you,” Corina says.
Notable Quotes from Corina Tripon
“Let your mind imagine what it would be like to have a support system, to have other women, other moms, who are bringing their kids along for their coworking dates. Allow yourself to even envision a life where you are doing both motherhood and running a business. And the rest of the people really will show up. But it starts with you.” (19:40)
“Women, so often, just think they should be doing it all. They don’t want to burden people by asking for help. And I think the most dangerous part of that is it teaches other women in our friendships and networks that they shouldn’t be asking for help, either.” (28:00)
Resources & Links
Visit Ginger Root Society, a bold community for women pursuing audacious success, and follow them on Instagram. You can connect with Corina on her Instagram at @corina_tripon.
Learn more about Project: Mom and follow us on Instagram at @projectmompodcast.
Do you want to share your motherhood journey on the podcast? Email me at projectmompod@gmail.com.