MÈRE Stories: Kate Zepernick
I’ve always been a high achiever.
And I always wanted to be a mom.
What I didn’t fully understand was how hard it would be to reconcile those two things once they were both real.
When I found out I was expecting during COVID, my home office began its transformation into my baby’s nursery.
I was working 70-hour weeks, surrounded by the evidence of my biggest dream in the form of baby gifts and an empty crib, and completely unsure how both versions of me were supposed to coexist.
When I found out I was expecting during COVID, my home office began its transformation into my baby’s nursery.
I was working 70-hour weeks, surrounded by the evidence of my biggest dream in the form of baby gifts and an empty crib, and completely unsure how both versions of me were supposed to coexist.
On my very first day back from maternity leave, the CEO called and asked me to lead a company-defining merger. (I remember it clearly—I had just settled into the mother's room with my Spectra).
I thought I could keep operating the way I always had and just “add the baby.”
But motherhood demanded a new way of working.
I wasn’t willing to compromise on the kind of mom I wanted to be, but I also wasn’t going to be a poor performer at work. If I was going to work, it needed to be lucrative, fulfilling, and impactful.
I wanted to be there for everything like a stay-at-home mom and keep climbing like the high performer I had always been. I grew exhausted of bouncing between those two options, and something had to give.
So I found a new way forward.
I said yes, delivered the project, and earned a major promotion—without sacrificing what matters in motherhood, and without burning out.
That experience, and the ones that followed, taught me this truth: when you deliver great results, no one cares if it’s from a boardroom or your kitchen table, or in 40 hours or 20.
After baby #2, I created a new role for myself. After baby #3, I did it again - this time at 50% schedule (but not 50% output!). And today, I’m in the middle of delivering a global-scale, high-priority initiative for my firm. What changed? Benjamin Hardy says, “You cannot 10x your life by doing more. You 10x your life by doing far less.” So I learned the skills, got the coaching, and did less. I made the same (or bigger) impact.
You can’t do it all, but you can absolutely do what matters. If you're staring at a calendar that feels impossible, lower your shoulders and breathe.
You don’t have to choose between a fulfilling career and a meaningful family life.
The tools exist.
The mindset is learnable.
And I’m living proof that promotions and playdates can thrive together.
I love helping women see how this can be true for them too—so they can write their own ticket, on their own terms.
If you had to summarize your journey in motherhood with all its challenges, how would you describe it now? How have you found a way to reclaim your strength or identity? What have you learned?Motherhood has taught me so much about how God loves each of us.
It has made me feel invincible and vulnerable, simultaneously.
Choosing to do what is right for me and for my family, and getting in the driver's seat of my life, has given me so much confidence in my ability to be the mom my kids need.
What advice or words of encouragement would you give another mom walking through a similar chapter? Listen to yourself—don't turn off your inner voice because it's saying something that's hard to grapple with like "you're leaving your kids too much".
Listen to that inner voice with curiosity. Journal on it. Challenge it. And if you decide that voice is right, then make a change.
How has your journey changed you, both in ways you expected and in ways you never could have imagined?My journey in motherhood has softened me, yet made me stronger than ever.
— Kate Zepernick
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