Launching BEAM Stories
A welcome shift and a chance to tell even more stories that matter.
Let’s travel back in time a year ago, shall we? I was 8 months postpartum with Evie and freaking out. After coming back to consulting, every client was gone in a flash due to a tech bubble that burst. I was at square one - again.
This was a place I knew very well, and it scared the hell out of me. Five years earlier, I I came back from an extended maternity leave with Brendan and landed at a startup that was driven to build a world that put women at the center. I believed in the mission, so much so that I lost myself in it. My identity: working 90+ hours and being Brendan’s mom. Sleep was a luxury. Time with my husband was an anomaly.
For many ambitious women, this is a tale as old as time. Over the past five years, I’d worked hard to define my identity not by “what I do” but by “who I am and what I love.” It took years of therapy and a global pandemic to bring me to that spot.
So when I attended the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference in Seattle on March 9, 2023, I was a bit frazzled. I was redrafting a manuscript of my memoir that I’d been working on for two years. I saw no clients returning because they’d either been laid off or had budgets slashed. To top it off, I left Evie for the first time for an extended day while we were exclusively breastfeeding. I didn’t want to tell anyone that I was struggling with this trifecta for fear that I’d get the poor dear stares (or even worse, ghost me altogether).
My nerves and anxiety buzzing was an understatement.
If there’s any lesson I’ve learned over more than four decades, it’s that my hands and feet buzz when the most exciting ideas or launch moments happen. Seriously. It’s like there’s an electric current coursing through and I clench my fists to contain the energy.
My hands and feet buzzed as I sent this tweet that changed the trajectory of my life and work.
Over the coming months, BEAM was born with an in-person event and online survey, filled out by more than 1,500 moms and caregivers around the world in one week. We started partnership conversations with incredible brands and non-profits, ranging from those serving in the mom and baby space to menopause and women’s health care.
And we launched an incredible podcast with remarkable guests, like author and grief guide Marisa Renee Lee, LinkedIn’s Jessi Hempel, New York Times opinion writer Jessica Grose, Moms Rising CEO and legislative champion Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Gennev CEO Jill Angelo, and many more.
We touched a nerve with powerful conversations that have translated into qualitatively measurable impact. It has proved to me that we’re onto something here, and we’re just getting started.
Shifting BEAM to New Heights
To grow BEAM is to grow our capacity to collect and share as many stories from moms and caregivers that span generations, backgrounds, and perspectives. To do this, we’re shifting both the podcast and our Substack presence in a few ways.
We’re launching
as a free Substack community and a space to encourage even more sharing and collaboration than ever before.Every Friday, we’ll post a new story from a mom or caregiver that highlights their own deeper connection to this work. It’s our goal and hope that you’ll feel seen by each story, find belonging, and feel inspired to share your truth through this Substack.
On Mondays, we’ll share questions to get you thinking about your own stories. We want to hear them here! We’ll also keep the conversation going on BEAM’s Instagram and LinkedIn as well.
Each Wednesday, you’ll get the BEAM Stories podcast delivered to your inbox or Substack app. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. (If you subscribed to And More with Amy Kugler, double-check that you’re still subscribed and it will be seamless!)
BEAM’s flagship podcast - And More with Amy Kugler - is becoming BEAM Stories as well. Truly, it’s the same conversations we’re having - in-depth, personal, nuanced, intersectional discussions that bring to life the up and down of parenting. Don’t worry - I’m still hosting the show :)
Unscripted - this Substack - will continue. I’ll still write my weekly posts and keep notes going on this side of things, too. Paid subscribers will remain here on Unscripted.
A few programming notes with these changes:
- is free for a while - we’re not offering paid subscriptions there because we believe in building an organic community. That might change in the future, but that’s the goal as of launch.
The BEAM Stories podcast will live on the
Substack from here on out. I’ll repost it on Unscripted as a note, but I won’t be posting new episodes from here on out on this channel. It’s the best way we know how to organize.If you’re a subscriber of
, I’m going to do the heavy lifting of adding you as a subscriber to as well. If you’d prefer to unsubscribe either Substack, I get it! No questions asked.
It’s been a year, and my hands, feet, and heart are still buzzing about all that we have in front of us. I’m so grateful you’re on this journey. Your encouragement and belief in BEAM, in my writing, and in my personal journey amazes me every day.
Onward and upward,
