Randi Zinn - Going Beyond Mom: How to Activate Your Mind, Body & Business After Baby

Praise for Randi Zinn and the Beyond Mom community

Randi provides an important voice and support system for women looking to maintain their unique identities beyond mom. I have always been very impressed by the depth and thoughtfulness she brings to every part of her own life. And as a fitness professional, I am especially impressed by her commitment to health and wellness as one of the central pillars of her work. All mothers need more people like Randi in their lives!

Mahri Relin, founder & creator of Body Conceptions fitness

This book will provide a unique opportunity for all mothers to benefit from the wisdom and honesty of a thoughtfully cultivated community of dynamic and inspirational women. Beyond Mom is not about leaning in or out or left or right, it is about discovering your own path through and beyond motherhood.

Naomi Schoenkin, founder of Six Degrees of Mom

Randi Zinn knows communities. Shes adept at forging connections between moms at a vulnerable and transitional state. When we become moms, theres no handbook, we have to rely on our girlfriends and communities to get us through the rough spots. As a woman who wants to be defined as more than just a mom, while also relishing my delicious family life, Im so glad Randis there to celebrate and enumerate the possibilities. This is a book for me and all the other mom entrepreneurs who are incubating ideas.

Nicole Feliciano, author of Mom Boss ; founder and CEO of MomTrends and TheShoppingMama.com

Becoming a mom doesnt mean we relinquish the desire to stay connected to ourselves, our careers and to other womenRandi gets that. Through the creation of Beyond Mom , Randi sends the message that women not only deserve but need opportunities to develop ideas, nurture mind and body, and maximize our potential. Randi is not only inspirational in the way she lives her own life, but in her desire to motivate and encourage other women who want to go beyond being a mom to live with intention and purpose. Randi is a leader and a teacher. Her skills are invaluable to any woman looking to redefine her role in life after motherhood.

Rachel A. Cedar, MSW, founder of You Plus 2 Parenting

Randi has bucked all assumptions and become even more of a force of nature since becoming a mom! She is the only person who can get me up at 6 a.m. on a Sunday to exercise with a bunch of other equally bleary-eyed mothers because I (and they) know that at her events, we will meet amazing people who make us feel a part of something bigger than ourselves. Because of the community she has built, I feel empowered as a woman, a momma, and an entrepreneur.

Ali Smith, photographer and award-winning author of Momma Love: How the Mother Half Lives

For years, Randi Zinn has been thoughtfully building an exciting and inspired community of women who have decided that while motherhood is central to their lives, it does not define them. The Beyond Mom community inspires rich conversations about the meaning of motherhood, work, and womanhood in the twenty-first century.

Natalia Mehlman Petrezela, assistant professor of history at The New School

Randi has brilliantly created a resource for what all working mothers know: You cant do it alone! She has brought together an amazing community of moms with experts to guide them on the journey to wholeness and success. I wish I could have experienced this when my son was growing up.

Barbara Biziou, author of The Joy of Family Rituals

Randi is a powerful force for what life as a mother and woman is all about. Her movement, Beyond Mom , is one that invites women to lead as mothers from their strength as women. As a coach and strategist for women, my work in teaching the principles of fierce and feminine resilience and leadership is emulated by Randis work with her community of moms. It is clear that today, our children, the next generation, need for their mothers to be happy, healthy, and whole as women so that they can serve as the kind of role models they need. Randi, through Beyond Mom , is able to serve, support, and inspire women to take responsibility for nurturing themselves as they step more fully into the role of mothers. She is walking her talk and paving the way for the women she serves.

Laura W. Campbell, womens transition strategist, relationship and divorce expert and coach

Its easy to think that being a mom requires you to be that and only that. Moms have interests, passions, businesses lives. The concept of Beyond Mom exemplifies that and Randi is the ultimate connector for these moms.

Kaity Velez, cofounder of Well-Rounded NY

Randis quality of truth struck me as not only refreshingly honest, but vital. I have witnessed her blossom and build a community of women that look to her as a leader and an innovator. She leads by example and serves as the foundation of what it means to push past traditional stereotypes and lead a Beyond Mom lifestyle.

Jasmine Takanikos, JTCG Consulting

Copyright 2017 by Randi Zinn

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Jenny Zemanek

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-2400-6

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-2402-0

Printed in the United States of America

For my parents, who saw my gifts long before I did.

For my husband, who urged me to step into those gifts.

And for my children when you were born, so too was the woman I was meant to become.

Contents

Foreword

by Melinda Blau

I STARTED PAYING ATTENTION TO MOTHERS when I became one myself in 1969. As a journalist, I began to cover motherhood and the many relationships it involveswith children, partners, parents, siblings. And this, among other things, is what Ive learned: As challenging as being a mother was in the seventies, it is even more so today. I wish there werent a need for Beyond Mom , but there is.

I began studying (and worrying about) this current crop of moms when my daughter became a mother, and I a grandmother. We were both, as Jen spontaneously put it one day, in the Motherhood Union.

I had never been as close to my mother as Jen and I were. We had the same taste in clothes, music, and movies. We also enjoyed similar activities, like yoga and tennis. And in 2002, when we launched our website MotherU.com, and began talking to other mother/daughter duos, we realized we werent alonewomen in their 30s and 60s were more alike than different, a phenomenon we described as generation overlap. Jen and I never wrote our bookshe raised three sons and I pursued other writing projects. We also suspected thirteen years ago that it was too early in our motherhood and grandmotherhood careers to write about them. How right we were!

One thing I didnt see coming was the inordinate and unfair pressure mothers now bear. In this way, my generation of mothers were not like our daughters. Sure, it had always been a daunting task to raise a child, and we had our share of maternal angst as we flooded into the workplace. But motherhood nowadays, in varying degrees, has become a preoccupation. To be a mother is to be all things to your child and, worst of all, to hold yourself responsible for how a child turns out.