The Problem Nobody Bothered to Solve with Patrice Meagher

Patrice Meagher is the founder and CEO of MilkMate and a former Executive Vice President at CBRE, where she spent nearly 15 years shaping the commercial real estate landscape in Manhattan – while becoming a mother of four.She was, by almost any measure, succeeding. And she was also, by her own account, quietly losing the plot.Not because she wasn't capable. But because the system around her was never designed for what she was carrying.MilkMate has invented the category of BPaaS – breast pumping as a service – providing employers with a hospital-grade, fully managed pumping solution that saves working mothers an average of 60 minutes a day. Before she built it, Patrice pumped in IT closets, forgot parts, missed meetings, and arrived at a swim meet – parking ticket and all – just in time to watch her daughter touch the wall after the race was already over.In this conversation, we talk about what it actually costs to build a demanding career while breastfeeding, commuting, producing, and trying to hold it all together. We talk about the mentors – often men – who quietly shaped the direction of her career. We talk about what partnership really looks like inside a marriage when both people are building, and how one person's belief can be the thing that makes a risk feel possible. And we talk about what finally pushed Patrice to leave a world she loved to build something she believed in more.She didn't leave corporate America in defeat. She left because she could finally see the problem clearly enough to solve it.That's the thing about motherhood. Once it shows you what's broken, you can't unsee it.To learn more about MilkMate, follow them on Instagram (@milkmateinc) and LinkedIn. And if your workplace could benefit from MilkMate, speak up! You may be eligible for a $1,000 referral bonus if MilkMate gets installed through your recommendation. Patrice and her team have made it easy: you can find the employee referral toolkit at www.milkmate.com/for-employees/.*******⭐️ Follow The Mothers and leave a 5-star review if this resonated💬 Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it📱 Join The Mothers on Instagram @themotherspod✍️ Subscribe to ⁠⁠Sara’s Substack⁠⁠ for reflections on life, work, meaning & motherhood💼 Find Sara on ⁠LinkedInThe Mothers is a production of Backline Media.