Ready or Not – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome back to Ask Ready or Not! It’s Ready or Not’s tip-based episode, landing in your ears every Friday.

Today, Loz is diving into the challenge of asking for flexibility at work—without feeling like you’re asking for too much. She’ll cover how to frame the conversation, the stats that back you up, and what to say to get the best chance of a ‘yes.’ If you’re ready to advocate for flexibility and balance, this is essential listening.

Thanks for listening to Ask Ready or Not! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review.

You can also find us on Instagram:

@readyornot.pod

@laurentreweek_

@lucindamckimm_

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which we're lucky enough to raise our sons and daughters always was and always will be Aboriginal land. We Pay The Rent.

This month, Ready or Not is proudly brought to you by Yoto. Use our discount Code: READYORNOT15 for 15% off your Yoto device [not to be used with any other offer, valid from 1st May - 5th June.]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've given birth or consume any content in the motherhood and birth space, there's a good chance you've come across Beth Ryan. She's the founder of PowerBirth, she's a midwife, she's a mother of two, and she's just one of those people that makes you feel better. She's a soothing balm, she's incredibly intelligent and empowering when it comes to childbirth education, and she's someone that I've found to be an absolute joy to follow online. 

In this conversation, we learn how PowerBirth has grown to be the business it is today, how she and her partner have made changes in her family to enable her to go full throttle with PowerBirth, what it's been like to grow her team, and her experience going from one to two babies.

This is such an insightful conversation filled with business advice, how she feels about how she shows up online and what she's learned about motherhood, midwifery, and childbirth along the way. 

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This episode is brought to you by Ocean Thinkers, a social enterprise on a mission to inspire the next generation to learn more about our ocean, make a positive impact and be part of a hopeful future.

By providing educational and creative experiences (through events, apparel and a membership-based Ocean Thinkers Club), this mum-led initiative is all about increasing our children's knowledge and awareness of their Sea Country while reinvesting ALL profits in local ocean conservation. Children have the power to tackle ocean conservation head-on and Ocean Thinkers is here to help them.

Shop their beautiful limited edition apparel range and join the Ocean Thinkers Club now at oceanthinkers.com.au

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Thanks for listening to Ready or Not! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review.

You can also find us on Instagram:

@readyornot.pod

@laurentreweek_

@lucindamckimm_

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which we're lucky enough to raise our sons and daughters always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

We Pay The Rent and you can too.

This month, Ready or Not is proudly brought to you by Yoto. Use our discount Code: READYORNOT15 for 15% off your Yoto device [not to be used with any other offer, valid from 1st May - 5th June.]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sarah Tarca's decision not to send her kids to childcare has nothing to do with me and my choice to send mine, and yet, of all the choices she's made in her parenting life, this is the one that is the most divisive...the one that compels people to voice their opinion the loudest.

She's not holding up childcare is bad signs, she's not telling others not to do it. Simply, it just wasn't part of her motherhood and career plan. And after listening to her talk about it, I'm convinced that we can all get a little better at finding confidence in our own choices, rather than judging someone's else's.

Prior to motherhood, she cut her teeth at the likes of Cosmo and Girlfriend, before building a freelance career as a beauty journalist that would allow her to travel and work around the world. In fact, she was on a plane to Brazil to attend Carnival when she got the call to confirm her first pregnancy.

Here, she talks about the identity loss that came with leaving her corporate career behind, what she learned from how Mia Freedman made work, work as a young mum in the media world, how starting her family later than the norm helped her to create the flexible work schedule she wanted, and why childcare wasn't part of the plan for her family.

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This episode is brought to you by Bonne Soirée - beautiful, timeless bed linen for children. Bring joy and style to bedtime at bonnesoiree.com.au

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Thanks for listening to Witching Hour! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review.

You can also find us on Instagram:

@readyornot.pod

@laurentreweek_

@lucindamckimm_

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which we're lucky enough to raise our sons and daughters always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

We Pay The Rent and you can too here.

This month, Ready or Not is proudly brought to you by Yoto. Use our discount Code: READYORNOT15 for 15% off your Yoto device [not to be used with any other offer, valid from 1st May - 5th June.]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to Tits and Tricks! It’s Ready or Not’s new bite sized tip based podcast, and it’s coming to your ears every Thursday. Today, Loz is talking about how to answer those RIDICULOUS questions you might face when you return to paid work.

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Shop the Ready or Not Go To Guides now, for $29 each or $69 for the trio:

• Breastfeeding and Returning to Work
• Childcare 101
• Postpartum and Return to Work Planning
• You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod

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Thanks for listening to Tits & Tricks! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review. You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which we're lucky enough to raise our sons and daughters always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

We Pay The Rent and you can too here.

This month, Ready or Not is proudly brought to you by Yoto. Use our discount Code: READYORNOT15 for 15% off your Yoto device [not to be used with any other offer, valid from 1st May - 5th June.]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For some mothers, the idea of leaving their baby - particularly in those first few months or even years - feels excruciating, irreconcilable, even. For others, having space to engage in pursuits outside of mothering feels important, perhaps even necessary.

Both feelings are valid and on this particular subject, I'm a chameleon. Every day, my wants and needs as a mother and a professional turn a new shade - my feelings are never stagnant, they're ever-changing.

I've often said that if there was a way to simultaneously strap my babies to my chest and have them 10 kilometres away from me at all times, I'd be content. So deep is the tension that exists between wanting both, so deep is the paradox that is modern motherhood. And perhaps there is nothing that quite magnifies that tension as much as navigating the murky waters of motherhood and career.

It's something that today's guest knows all about. Lauren Perrett had a panic attack during a meeting in New Zealand when returning to paid work, and I don't think it's a stretch to say it changed everything for the mother of two. And eventually, she'd go on to launch BubbaDesk - the co-working service with onsite childcare that is quite literally changing lives.

Here, we talk finding meaning in paid work, how that meeting in New Zealand would go on to change her path, and why mothers and parents need more choice when it comes to childcare.

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Shop the Ready or Not Go To Guides now, for $29 each or $69 for the trio:

• Breastfeeding and Returning to Work
• Childcare 101
• Postpartum and Return to Work Planning

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Thanks for listening to Witching Hour! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review. You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which we're lucky enough to raise our sons and daughters always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

We Pay The Rent and you can too here.

This month, Ready or Not is proudly brought to you by Yoto. Use our discount Code: READYORNOT15 for 15% off your Yoto device [not to be used with any other offer, valid from 1st May - 5th June.]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

WOWEE we are taking you places today, our friends. From Loz's kid-free trip to Bali with her husband and Lu feeling like she and her husband are getting through the hardest part of two under two, to why George Clooney should take a leaf out of Gourmet Traveller's book (we're looking at you Brad Pitt) and Jane Fonda's reflections on her parenting, this episode covers a LOT. Plus, Loz shares what she fears most as her kids need her less and a listener wrote in about feeling like a failure in business and we want to pick her the feck UP!

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Shop the Ready or Not Go To Guides now, for $29 each or $69 for the trio and 10% off with code READY10:

• Breastfeeding and Returning to Work
• Childcare 101
• Postpartum and Return to Work Planning

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Thanks for listening to Witching Hour! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review. You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which we're lucky enough to raise our sons and daughters always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

We Pay The Rent and you can too here.

This month, Ready or Not is proudly brought to you by Yoto. Use our discount Code: READYORNOT15 for 15% off your Yoto device [not to be used with any other offer, valid from 1st May - 5th June.]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to Tits and Tricks! It’s Ready or Not’s new bite sized tip based podcast, and it’s coming to your ears every Thursday. Today, Lu is talking all things telling your boss you're pregnant.

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LU'S LINKS:

Here at the two episodes that discuss how to tell your boss that you're pregnant in a new job:

• Ask Loz for motherhood and career advice, just don't ask her to meditate
• Britney Spears: “If I got upset and asserted myself, I was out of control and crazy” and "HELP! I'm unexpectedly pregnant in a new job"

Links for knowing your rights:

• Fair Work: Entitlements while pregnant
• Human Rights website: A quick guide to your rights.
• Governement parental leave information

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Shop the Ready or Not Go To Guides now, for $29 each or $69 for the trio:

• Breastfeeding and Returning to Work
• Childcare 101
• Postpartum and Return to Work Planning
• You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod

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Thanks for listening to Tits & Tricks! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review. You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which we're lucky enough to raise our sons and daughters always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

We Pay The Rent and you can too here.

This month, Ready or Not is proudly brought to you by Yoto. Use our discount Code: READYORNOT15 for 15% off your Yoto device [not to be used with any other offer, valid from 1st May - 5th June.]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For decades, women and mothers have been hiding. We cover up our breasts as we feed our babies because since forever, our breasts have been sexualised. How dare you get those tarty things out to offer nourishment to that hungry, tired love of your life. Put them away.

We hide the blood that drops between our legs because we've been told it's disgusting. And what's more repulsive, more unattractive, more intolerable, they tell us, is the mood swings that it brings. A woman on her period, they say, is crazy.

And often, we hide the depths of our feelings as we navigate the throes of early motherhood, because we're meant to be grateful. We're meant to be giving. We're meant to be naturally good at it.

That doesn't leave much room for comfort in motherhood, in fact it creates a feeling entirely opposite to warmth. And that is loneliness.

And it was when Keshia Hutchens and Ariel Bryant were walking the streets of Melbourne with their third babies that they wondered - interrogated, even - why there wasn't a safe space for mothers to go. To think and feel and learn and question and laugh and cry.

And so, they created From Day One; a space that is pulling mothers from outside of their own four walls and bringing them their village.

From how the two co-founders have made work, work over the years, to the magic that they're witnessing between the mothers who are making up the village that is From Day One, this is a special conversation about loneliness and the antidote to it.

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Shop the Ready or Not Go To Guides now, for $29 each or $69 for the trio and 10% off with code READY10:

• Breastfeeding and Returning to Work
• Childcare 101
• Postpartum and Return to Work Planning

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Thanks for listening to Witching Hour! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review. You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which we're lucky enough to raise our sons and daughters always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

We Pay The Rent and you can too here.

This month, Ready or Not is proudly brought to you by Yoto. Use our discount Code: READYORNOT15 for 15% off your Yoto device [not to be used with any other offer, valid from 1st May - 5th June.]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to Witching Hour: the show that looks at what's exciting, delighting, intriguing, and frustrating us as we make work, work alongside parenting. It's Ready or Not's loose little sister coming to your ears every Tuesday. In today's episode, Loz is enraged by a not so relaxing meditation session, and we answer four listener questions, all about the conundrums that mothers often face when it comes to navigating paid work.

Links:

• Here is the previous Witching Hour episode we reference about becoming pregnant in a new role.
• Here is the Tits & Tricks episode we reference on all things resumes.

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Shop the Ready or Not Go To Guides now, for $29 each or $69 for the trio and 10% off with code READY10:

• Breastfeeding and Returning to Work
• Childcare 101
• Postpartum and Return to Work Planning

---

Thanks for listening to Witching Hour! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review. You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which we're lucky enough to raise our sons and daughters always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

We Pay The Rent and you can too here.

This month, Ready or Not is proudly brought to you by Yoto. Use our discount Code: READYORNOT15 for 15% off your Yoto device [not to be used with any other offer, valid from 1st May - 5th June.]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Max Jahufer is the founder of creative agency, Future Studio. He’s also a proud trans father who will make his film debut in an upcoming comedy drama about a trans woman returning home for Christmas, and all the tension, secrets and lies that come with it.

Having always felt like the different kid, Max is open about the extra layer of what it means to bring up a child in a family that is perceived as different, and as the first dad on this show, I learn what it’s like returning to work just two weeks after your baby is born.

Here, we talk navigating work and parenting as the secondary caregiver, moving the family up to Queensland to be part of the film, and the importance of being surrounded by people with open minds.

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Thanks for listening to Ready or Not! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review. You can also find us on Instagram at readyornot.pod.

Follow Max and Paris's journey here.

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurong people of the Kulin Nation. The land on which I''m lucky enough to raise my son always was and always will be Aboriginal land. I Pay The Rent and you can too here.

This month, Ready or Not is proudly brought to you by Yoto. Use our discount Code: READYORNOT15 for 15% off your Yoto device [not to be used with any other offer, valid from 1st May - 5th June.]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.