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How do you design parental leave in a way that works for you, your family, and your business without sacrificing entrepreneurial success? Today’s guest is a parental leave consultant who provides expecting business owners with a step-by-step blueprint for planning their parental leave while ensuring that their small business runs smoothly and successfully in their absence.

Arianna Taboada is the Founder of The Expecting Entrepreneur, a consulting firm that helps entrepreneurs design parental leave plans that fit their business models and personal needs. Arianna speaks and writes about parental leave and respectful maternity care as an issue of social justice, human rights, and economic equity. She is also the author of a book by the same name, The Expecting Entrepreneur: A Guide to Parental Leave Planning for Self Employed Business Owners.

In this episode of Next Economy Now, guest host, Fabiola Santiago, speaks with Arianna about rethinking family leave in the US, which is the only industrialized country that doesn’t have a national paid parental leave program, and Arianna shares three key strategies that can help business owners plan their parental leave, drive change, and create opportunity. We also touch on ways of reshaping our relationship with mental health and grief, and Ariana shares her perspective on building the next economy, which centers around sharing resources and building community. Tune in today!

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Key Points From This Episode:

• Insight into Arianna’s background and how she came to be a parental leave consultant.

• What the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) entitles you to and why it’s exclusionary.

• How to rethink family leave in the US and build businesses that drive change.

• Three concrete strategies that can assist business owners in planning parental leave.

• The power of business operations, financial planning, and building solid support systems.

• Reshaping our relationship with mental health as we make major life transitions like becoming a parent or starting a business.

• What the Indigenous midwifery concept of ‘la pequeña muerte’ taught Arianna about grief.

• Arianna’s perspective on building the next economy: the power of sharing resources.

• What is bringing her joy right now, including shifting how she thinks about impact.

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Tweetables:

“The US is the only industrialized country that does not have a national paid [parental] leave program, and that is in spite of pretty strong public support across the political spectrum, across families of all types, and [across] businesses of all types.” — @Ariannataboada

“Life transitions, like pregnancy, like becoming a parent, like starting a business, are key drivers for change and windows for opportunity. In a similar way, if we want to do business differently, we need to build infrastructure and community around that.” — @Ariannataboada

“What are the places and communities where a resource like [my book] would make sense to offer up? I’m curious about what places, whether it’s entrepreneurship groups or parenting groups, could use [my] book and share it.” — @Ariannataboada

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Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Arianna Taboada — https://www.Ariannataboada.com/

Arianna Taboada on Twitter — https://twitter.com/Ariannataboada

Arianna Taboada on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/Ariannataboada/

Arianna Taboada on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/Ariannataboada/

The Expecting Entrepreneur — https://www.theexpectingentrepreneur.com/

The Expecting Entrepreneur — https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780578933443

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Show Notes + Other Links

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