Career Mama newsletter - July 2025

Hi Career Mamas,

In July, we focused on Presence over Perfection. Through the Summer Fun Challenge, many of you carved out time for joy and connection - protecting one joy during the holiday, choosing presence with your kids, and letting go of pressure at work.

We also hosted a powerful workshop with Zoe Blaskey. The recording of “How to Let GO of the Pressure to be the 'Perfect' Mom” workshop is now available on the CM platform (Kajabi) for you to watch anytime.

In August, our theme is Protect Your Priorities. This month is about reclaiming your time - not by doing more, but by focusing on what matters most (especially as summer wraps up). You’ll build habits to work smarter, set stronger boundaries, and stay present for what’s important.

Slack roundup, August Circle prompt and resources, Kajabi, and 1:1s details:

💬 Monthly Slack roundup:

• Growth chat with manager: what to ask + best practices

• Building Visibility: how to connect with manager’s peers ahead of EOY promotion cycle

• From Senior to Staff role - tips in creating a promo packet

• Returning to work - reintegration tips and materials

• Mental health resource for moms returning to work after maternity leave

• AI software for creating AI Training content - tips and recommendations

• Community support after RIF - advice, leads, and encouragement

• Engineering Project Management tools & workload balance

• Weekend in Denver with a 5y/o - activity & visit suggestions

• Back & Energized: Quality time, Maui, and Backstreet Boys Concert in Vegas!

• Relaxing vacation ideas for a 2.5y/o

• Tips for a smooth daycare transition

• Fiction book recs for vacation reading

• Book recs on marriage & money

🎥 Resources:

• 🗣️ AMA & Connect on August 20th 10:30-11:30am PT - See invite for Zoom details

• Get unfiltered answers from Shivani on career advice, mom-life, LinkedIn growth, her journey, etc.

• Connect with other Career Mamas in a small group breakout room

• 📺 Coming soon: “How to strategically set boundaries that stick”. Stay tuned for the video lesson in the Career Mama platform (Kajabi)

🎯 Challenge for August: Prioritization Power-up

This month is about reclaiming your time - not by doing more, but by focusing on what matters most (especially as summer wraps up). You’ll build habits to work smarter, set stronger boundaries, and stay present for what’s important.

📆 Week 1 (Aug 4 week): Clarify What Matters

📆 Week 2 (Aug 11 week): Cut the Noise

📆 Week 3 (Aug 18 week): Build a Boundary

📆 Week 4 (Aug 25 week): Protect the Follow-Through

Reply back if you’re joining this challenge.

✅ Every Monday, post in Slack what you tried and what shifted for you.

💡 Slack Village Guidelines:

We’ve added a new Slack Village Guidelines section in Kajabi. Please take a moment to review it. Below are a few quick guidelines to help you feel more confident posting and engaging:

• You can post anything on your mind (work, self, health, kids, vents, etc)

• Your question doesn’t have to apply to everyone. It’s okay to ask something niche (e.g. an engineering management dilemma, marketing tips, potty training) in the #general channel.

• Unpolished thoughts or questions are welcome.

• Share wins, vent, ask for help, or drop resources. All of it is valuable.

• Remember that you don’t need the “perfect” answer to chime in. Your voice adds value - even if you don’t have time to read the whole thread.

Post even when it feels uncomfortable. That’s growth. You’re practicing asking for help, progress over perfection, and taking up space.

✍️ Circle prompt for August:

This month we’re practicing prioritization. Not just by managing time, but by questioning what’s shaping our choices in the first place. In this Circle, we’ll go deeper:

Are you prioritizing from intention or from pressure? And how can others help you see what you might not?

Prompt Questions:

1. Reflect on your current top 3 priorities. What’s driving these choices? Perhaps it’s survival mode, internal values, feeling you’re falling behind, team expectations, guilt, or a need to prove something? Be honest.

2. What’s a cost you’re currently absorbing (at work or home) because of how you’re prioritizing? This may be stress, exhaustion, increased workload, back to back meetings, less time with kids, health, toxic relationships, etc.

3. Share a boundary or priority you’re struggling with? Why are you finding it challenging? How can the group help you better prioritize or enforce the boundary? This can be related to work (e.g. hard to stand out at work, conflicting asks, late night work) or home (e.g. sharing the load, bedtime routine, self-care).

4. Based on this conversation, what’s one shift in how you’re approaching prioritization next week?

🕒 Please reflect on this for 15 minutes before your Circle discussion.

🫶 1:1s sign up:

If you’d like to have a 1:1 with a Career Mama (optional), let us know by August 8th. We’ll pair you up and you’ll schedule a 30-minute Zoom or phone call with your partner in August.

🌟 Member Spotlight:

Starting this month, we’ll highlight one Career Mama each newsletter to celebrate the real, courageous ways you’re navigating work, family, and everything in between.

This month, we’re spotlighting Carissa - she shared in Slack a few weeks ago that she was in 'summer of survival'. By leveraging Circle discussions and member Slack shares, she was inspired to re-evaluate her priorities and deprioritize non-essential work tasks. This helped her spend more time with her kids and feel calmer!

🌱 A gentle reminder: You did something brave in July - choosing presence, even when it felt imperfect. As we step into August, I hope you continue that courage by saying no to what drains you, so you can say yes to what matters most.

Please reply back letting us know you received this (to help confirm your email isn’t getting stuck).

Cheers,
Shivani

P.S. Welcome to our newest Career Mama members! Check out their intros in #intros and say 'hi'!