Luscious Mother takes on workplace culture as LUMO, and it’s a full-time job.

Happy Friday, Luscious.

Anna and Sarah here. Summer is winding down, some very audacious trees in Maine are tinged with red, the children are being herded back to school, and word on the street and “in the papers” is less than Luscious.

For mothers, there’s uncertainty in the air and worry in the groundwater. Over the past week, two articles really rang our bell with headlines that managed to nail the catastrophe the pandemic has caused in two phrases:

“Women put careers on hold during COVID to care for kids. They may never recover.” – The Los Angeles Times

“Women caregivers power America’s economy. It’s time to support them.” – Fast Company

Frankly, it is well past time to support women caregivers. Mothers have been scrambling and proving, rescuing and re-creating, and to what end? What do we expect to see when, hopefully, someday, this painful and prolonged gestational pandemic period ends? What will the “postpartum” phase of this look like for families, for our economy, our society? Just as babies’ cells stay in their mother’s body for decades after birth, this pandemic is destined to intertwine with our cultural DNA and ride with us for generations to come.

Because of this, we are in your inbox today to share with you a major shift in our operations. We have decided that the most significant way we can support mothers at this time is to focus solely on LUMO, and set Luscious Mother aside for the next year and a half.

LUscious MOther is going back to work full time because we see LUMO as the key to reaching more women and businesses where they can most use our support: In the workplace. Moms are struggling, their kids are struggling, employers know this and they don’t have the tools and bandwidth to provide adequate support. They need help.

This is where LUMO comes in.

As LUMO, we are placing ourselves at the intersection of motherhood and work, and you best believe we will be redirecting traffic. The system that got us here isn’t going to be the one that changes this untenable reality for mothers and their families. And we refuse to be part of any narrative that suggests women need to be the ones to save themselves, when they’re already drowning.

By starting new conversations between moms and their employers, we lead both parties to think about what’s possible, instead of “how it has always been.” The resulting relationships, built from a place of human connection instead of just an economic transaction, create tectonic shifts in culture and room for humane integration of work and family: two parts of one whole life, not an insane balancing act.

When employers value results over relationships, when humanity is left out of the conversation, productivity suffers. The health and commitment of employees decline. At the intersection of this conundrum—at the intersection of motherhood and work—we can make our most significant impact.

The best place to start this conversation is at the precipice of parenthood. This is why we have been putting the lioness’ share of our efforts into our Online Program for Expecting Moms, slated to go to market this fall, which will be available to working mothers through their employers and directly from LUMO. We can’t even imagine what our lives would look like today if we had had this kind of support as new mothers. (If we had, Anna would still be a screenwriter. So, in a way… It worked out.)

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR LUSCIOUS MOTHER?

All mothers work. For those of you for who are “Chief Everything Officer” at home (aka Stay-at-Home-Moms) don’t worry. We know you still need support and no way are we leaving you high and dry. Our Luscious Mother coaches will continue to be available for one-on-one sessions. And of course our group coaching sessions through Camp Can-A-Mama-Get-A-Minute will all continue as planned.

We are so proud of what we have accomplished; it’s been one hell of a year to be Luscious. We held the Mother-Daughter Forgiveness Workshop, a KILLER course on Boundaries, launched a second summer of Camp CMGM, supported hundreds of women from all over the world on our community calls, rocked the holiday season with Holidamn!, wept and laughed at the Pity Party, onboarded 11 new EXTRAORDINARILY LUSCIOUS coaches, and preached the gospel of “Trickle Down Mom-onomics” in 46 newsletters and a whole bunch of media outlets, including Forbes! And though we six Luscious Founders have only ever been together in the same physical location one single time, we have stayed bound to one another, bound to our mission, and bound to our commitment to ALL mothers.

So here we go, pivoting and transitioning again. Just like badass moms have done since the dawn of time. Luscious Mother is heading back to work in her LUMO business suit, and we hope you will join us.

See you at the water cooler, mama.

With love and gratitude and all the Lusciousness in our hearts,

Anna & Sarah