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Women Who Went for It! is a bi-weekly podcast, hosted by Career Change Agent, Sara McArdle. The show features inspiring chats with successful industry changers who share how they found the clarity, courage and motivation to step into a deeper vocation and a life of meaning and fulfillment. We hope you'll see just how many before you have GONE for it—and they're eternally grateful that they took the risk!

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  2. Episode 008: A Lifesaving Move From Excite.com to MamaCon with Leanne Kabat

Episode 008: A Lifesaving Move From Excite.com to MamaCon with Leanne Kabat

Mar 18, 2018

Leanne Kabat
 
Leanne Kabat is alive today, in large part, because she followed the call to pursue her deeper life's work. As an International Media Manager for Excite.com in the 90s, she oversaw partnerships in Japan, Australia and Canada. After falling and lying paralyzed on the floor for hours one night, Leanne was given 5 years to live. Until one breakthrough moment at a MamaCon conference for moms, she'd lost all hope. Leanne now owns MamaCon, as well as MamaConnects, a podcast and media company with the motto: "No Mama Should Mama Alone."
 
Sara and Leanne discuss:
  • Leanne's career path
  • Studying journalism
  • Making documentaries
  • Moving to Silicon Valley, California
  • Not having working papers, as a Canadian citizen
  • Volunteering as an editor on an Academy Award-nominated documentary
  • Volunteering for Excite.com to manually categorize websites in the 90s
  • Excite sponsoring her work Visa and hiring her
  • Doing business overseas
  • Feeling called to stay home with her new baby
  • Excite filing for bankruptcy
  • Moving back to Canada and then to the Seattle area
  • Falling down, paralyzed for hours one night from a "neurological crash"
  • Her seemingly never-ending series of medical tests
  • Being told she had 5 years to live
  • Starting to take a myriad of drugs
  • Worsening symptoms
  • Experiencing profound memory loss
  • Counting down her remaining days
  • Routinely forgetting to pick her son up from school
  • Her mother-in-law coming to stay to help with the kids
  • Reaching her breaking point
  • The conversation that made her start living again
  • Taking an intensive self-care year
  • Taking her doctor's word for it that she was going to die
  • Not having any friends
  • Receiving an invitation to MamaCon Conference for Moms
  • Being  blown away by her experience at the event
  • Volunteering to be a part of the event team
  • MamaCon helping her feel safe to feel again
  • The MamaCon event team telling her they were out
  • Leanne's offer to buy the company
  • Realizing that she'd actually bought a business (oh, sh*t!)
  • Starting to put on quarterly Mama events
  • Feeling exhausted and realizing her own limitations
  • Remembering her "why" of connecting women: "No mama should mama alone."
  • Noticing moms of teens who were really struggling
  • Launching her "Mama to Mama" campaign to help 50 women with WHATEVER they needed
  • Finding new ways to employ her "inner researcher"
  • Reframing her heath scare
  • Her newfound sense of purpose
  • The life-saving importance of community and friendships between women
  • Becoming heart-centered
  • This year's MamaCon: May 6, 2018
  • The perks of networking
  • Her favorite networking group, Business Among Moms (BAM)
  • Being willing to ask for help when you need it
  • The dangers of comparison and thinking we're "not enough"
  • Figuring out how to run a business through trial and error
  • A surprising piece of advice she received from her cardiologist
  • Seeing her own worth
  • And more...
 
Connect with Leanne:
 
Leanne's full bio:
Leanne Kabat found her professional rhythm as an International Media Manager for the Silicon Valley search engine, Excite.com, in the 90s. She was responsible for the launch and growth of web partnerships in Japan, Australia and Canada. In the summer of 2001, in the blink of an eye, Leanne had her first child, Excite filed for bankruptcy and shut down operations and Leanne and her family moved back to Canada to be closer to their relatives. In 2006, Leanne’s husband was hired by Microsoft and they left Canada and moved to Seattle. Two months later, Leanne suffered a neurological crash one night, leaving her paralyzed on the floor for hours. That incident sparked an 8 month medical investigation into this mysterious brain crash. In November of 2006, Leanne's doctors gave her 5 years to live. She started to mentally and physically shut down, checking each day off her calendar. Through one breakthrough moment at home and one breakthrough moment at a MamaCon conference for moms, everything changed. Leanne took over MamaCon and was inspired to create MamaConnects, a podcast and media company with the motto: "No Mama Should Mama Alone."