Hosts Of ‘Moms Actually’ Podcast Pull Back The Curtain On Sisterhood And Motherhood

Mother’s Day is a day of celebration created by Anna Jarvis in 1908, and the day became an official holiday in 1914. Producers and co-hosts Blair Gyamfi and Morgan Taylor launched a podcast aptly titled Moms Actually that departs from the highlight Instagram reels of how motherhood is depicted on social media and dives into the components of transparent conversations about: “womanhood, marriage, single motherhood, body image, miscarriage, child loss, blended families, entrepreneurship, mental health” according to the duo’s website, and other topics not spoken about in the mainstream.

Women are recognized nationally for upholding the overwhelming sacrificial task of bringing life into the world and building maternal bonds with their children. During pregnancy an estimated 1 in 5 women gain 40 pounds during the gestation period. In 2021, “1,205 women died of maternal causes in the United States compared with 861 in 20220 and 754 in 2019. The maternal mortality rate for 2021 was 32.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared with a rate of 23.8 in 2020 and 20.1 in 2019,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition, writer Jenna Carberg cited that the physical trauma that a woman’s body endures during childbirth results in “approximately 1 in 10 women [that] will experience postpartum depression after giving birth, with some studies reporting 1 in 7 women.”

Women deserve all their flowers, and Gyamfi and Taylor, who also founded The Millennial Moms Club, are on a purpose-driven mission to ensure that mothers’ voices are heard and represented by pulling back the curtain and creating a safe space for mothers to share their experiences.

“We are building a community where motherhood meets sisterhood to support those who have felt alone in their personal parenting journey and give them a relatable voice to champion their experiences,” said the co-hosts, reported by Ebony.

Yolanda Baruch: Tell me about your background and how you both came together to create a podcast dedicated to mothers.

Moms Actually: [The podcast] was birthed from women who saw a need for more intentional spaces for mothers. We found endless articles on what to do for the baby and not enough on the women who have had the baby. Each of us individually had a voice and passion for the motherhood community in some capacity, but we knew that more could be done if we came together. Our passion for making sure women felt seen, heard, and empowered was a driving force. In addition, we wanted women to have the opportunity to hear authentic, vulnerable, relatable stories and perspectives that reassure them that they are not alone in their journey.

Yolanda Baruch: When entrepreneurs launch a business venture, they seek to fill a need; what need did you see with mothers that you wanted your podcast to serve?

Moms Actually: During motherhood, women tend to lose their identity and instead adopt the societal expectation of being a “superhero .”This label of “superwoman” is often used as a compliment, but it’s one we want to reject because it sets subconscious, unrealistic standards in the minds of mothers. Unfortunately, most motherhood communities lack supporting moms in this regard as they are [more focused] on parenting. To address that, we have created a community that every mother deserves – a space to be a woman alongside other women. Additionally, there needs to be more women-led platforms by women of color designed to reach mainstream audiences. We want to be a space where other women of color can see women look like them so they feel less siloed in their experiences.

Yolanda Baruch: Sometimes, mothers have many responsibilities. How do you delegate tasks so you don’t feel overwhelmed while building the podcast?

Moms Actually: You know how they say don’t go into business with a friend? Well, we both went into business as strangers and became close friends. As we were building Moms Actually, it became a safe space for us to build a relationship; through the process we learned a lot about our strengths and weaknesses and how to support each other when life happens without dropping the ball. Our tagline, “Where motherhood meets sisterhood,” was created because it described the trajectory of our relationship. That said, we have created a healthy work environment where we feel comfortable asking for help or helping each other find the help we may need to accomplish the goal at hand.

Yolanda Baruch: Discuss the launch of your podcast; what steps did you implement for it to succeed?

Moms Actually: Our goal was to create a multi-faceted brand that could effectively live on multiple platforms to meet our audience where they already spend their time, engage them in that space, then bring them to another platform to inform them, and eventually get them to the space where they can make purchasing decisions. [We] easily move our audience to Instagram for engagement and marketing, YouTube to inform and engage, podcast platforms to engage, and email to inform and make decisions. Also, we were fearless in asking for [prominent] guests before proof of concept. The worst someone can do is say no (laughs), but if you don’t ask, you risk never getting a yes. And in our first season, we got some noteworthy individuals that contributed to our early success.

The beautiful thing about the research and development process when building our brand is that we are the target market we were trying to reach. So we have a deep well to draw from because, in addition to ourselves, we have friends, sisters, and peers who always give us anecdotal and specific information about their wants and needs as mothers that we can incorporate as we refine and grow.

Yolanda Baruch: How do you utilize social media, email marketing, blogs, and paid ads to grow your brand? What were some results?

Moms Actually: Instagram has been the main driver to grow the brand. The platform has so many dynamic ways to market. So while our main platform is YouTube, we wanted to meet our audience where they are, which is on Meta Platforms. We leverage our personal pages while showing our personalities and high-quality content on our brand page @momsactually. When it comes to Instagram specifically, they make it simple to boost content with paid ads. We keep our eye on the data the platform provides, and if we see a piece of content doing better than others, we immediately use it as an ad. The carousel posting function with Instagram also allows us to appear at the top of someone’s feed multiple times to get the engagement we need. Lastly, we grew [an extensive] email list quickly, thanks to our previous brands and new interest in Moms Actually. The ability to market the podcast directly to another platform that moms check multiple times daily was key to our rapid growth in such a short amount of time.

Yolanda Baruch: What are the most effective ways you found in monetizing your podcast?

Moms Actually: We have found the most effective way up front is to apply for business grants available for early start-ups. By doing this, we haven’t had to compromise our content to fit advertisers that don’t align with us, and we don’t feel forced to push products to our audience to cover expenses. As a new business, this has given us time to find more strategic partners instead of several one-off advertisers. YouTube’s Partner Program is also a way to monetize that doesn’t impact our other platforms but brings in revenue.

Yolanda Baruch: Do you network with other podcasters? What have you learned from them?

Moms Actually: We have supported so many different podcast founders. Relationships are the foundation of any successful business. Consistency is the main thing that is reinforced when watching other podcasts’ success and sometimes failures. While that has been helpful, we have created our own lane with a talk show/podcast hybrid, so it’s been fun merging the two worlds and creating our own rules on what content and consistency look like.

Yolanda Baruch: What brands would you like to work with in the future?

Moms Actually: Women make up over half the population influencing over 31.8 trillion in worldwide spending, and 85% of these women are moms making purchasing decisions for their families. So we prefer to work with brands that have a forward-thinking approach and recognize women’s significant influence on global spending. We are interested in partnering with brands that understand the big picture and view women as influencers in all aspects of their lives, not just in a specific market. We recognize that women can make or break a brand; therefore, we seek to collaborate with brands that prioritize the opinions and preferences of women and mothers.

Yolanda Baruch: Discuss the upcoming Season 3 of Moms Actually; who are some guests you have lined up?

Moms Actually: This season, we focus on telling people’s stories. We feature influencer Ayumi Lashley, who talks about how her daughter’s autism diagnosis led to her own diagnosis. Dr. Verlonda Jackson went viral in 2020 when her son drowned. Her son initially lived, and she fought to improve her son’s quality of life until he passed 15 months later. Jade Godbolt, known for many years as LipsticknCurls, joins us to share her faith journey and how it completely changed her personal journey. We also feature reality star Apryl Jones who talks about how she has been since her two high-profile relationships and finding love with Taye Diggs. We will always have our first-ever dad join us this season as well!

Yolanda Baruch: What is the main takeaway you want listeners to receive from Moms Actually?

Moms Actually: We want women to realize they are not alone in what they feel as new or experienced mothers. As survivors of postpartum depression and anxiety, we both lived in moments where we felt completely alone in our motherhood journey. We want women to understand the power of community, sisterhood, and to break barriers by sharing their stories to help others realize they aren’t alone. Most importantly, we want to redefine the expectations of motherhood and the outdated societal norms placed on us. The idea of doing it all and being superwoman is unrealistic, unhealthy, nor rewarding. We aim to provide women with a sense of comfort and belonging through our content, reassuring them that they are not alone. By fostering a community, we hope to motivate them to redefine their self-perception and shed any negative self-comparisons to the normalized unrealistic standards.

Our conversations on Moms Actually provide a new level of vulnerability, authenticity, and relatability to viewers who often don’t get the chance to say, “I feel that way too.”

Watch or listen on MomsActually.com, YouTube, and all podcast platforms. Join our community on Instagram and Facebook.