Maria Woods

June 30, 2026June 30, 2026 ~ thestorybehindhersuccess

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Host of That Mom podcast

thatmompodcast.com

Guess what? Becoming a mom actually changes your brain. -Maria Wood

Meet a working mom on a mission to help other moms create lives that align with the things that matter most to them. Maria Woods is the host of the all-new podcast series That Mom thatmompodcast.com. Born and Raised in the little town of Royalston, Massachusetts, she’s the daughter of an educator, and holds three degrees in cultural anthropology, law and business. In this interview, she shares the story behind the creation of her popular series, and the joy she gets from offering her audience knowledge they can use from the experts who appear on the show. Says Maria: “Motherstoday are under pressure to do it all and there’s been no mention of the sacrifice that goes into it.” Now the mother of two young children, Maria says she makes no apologies for the time she spends at work. Why? Because she loves her career in marketing. So, instead of telling her children “mommy has to go to work” Maria has flipped the guilt script and says “mommy gets to go to work today and I’ll have lots to tell you when I get home.” Prioritizing what really matters to you is the key to fulfillment as a parent, says Maria. “As moms, it’s hard to do everything and maybe sometimes, we can’t. You have to give from a place of love, but you also have to give from a place of wanting to give, and that nuance makes modern motherhood so complicated.” For 24 minutes of priceless mom wisdom, just hit that download button. #motherhood #wisdom #workingmom #thestorybehindhersuccess

Cara Belvin

June 18, 2026June 30, 2026 ~ thestorybehindhersuccess

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Founder of EMPOWER weareempower.org

Here’s what my dad did for me after my mother died: He told me he loved me every single day. It wasn’t his job to teach me how to grieve. It was his job to love me. -Cara Belvin

This episode features Cara Belvin, one of the first women to share her story on The Story Behind Her Success when we launched the show back in 2018. She’s the founder of a charity called EMPOWER, which creates community for children grieving the loss of a parent. Raised in Southington, Connecticut, Cara’s mother, Kit, died of breast cancer when she was only 37 years old, leaving a grieving husband and two young children. Cara was only 9 years old when this life-changing experience happened to her, and in this interview, she explains that it was her father and a large extended family who surrounded her with love and support. The loss of our mothers early in our lives is what initially connected us. We grew up about 10 miles apart in Connecticut, and if I had met her back then, I would have taken her by the hand and shown her the way. My 18-year-old self would have reassured her that she would survive. EMPOWER is Cara’s homage to her mother; originally created to connect girls with female mentors who have also experienced motherloss, EMPOWER now includes boys and nonbinary kids, connecting them to mentors who know firsthand how it feels to lose a parent. In this interview, we learn that Cara has raised 10 million dollars in 13 years . What started as a bereavement program with only 7 girls in Boston is now a national non-profit that helped more than 1000 children in 2025. This Father’s Day, we acknowledge the love of our fathers during the most difficult time of our lives. “Grief is like a tattoo, says Cara, it will fade, but it’s not going anywhere. I see the weight of the world on the shoulders of a lot of dads who are parenting alone after the loss of a partner. I have a lot of empathy for them, because they look just like my dad.” For 27 minutes of #fathersday inspiration, just hit that download button. #womeninspiringwomen #motherloss #fatherloss #bereavement #children

Kim Carrigan

June 10, 2026June 30, 2026 ~ thestorybehindhersuccess

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Host of Carrigan & Company

carriganandcompanypod.com

I have appreciated every day and every minute of this big, huge career I’ve been blessed with.

-Kim Carrigan

This episode features a woman I have admired for many years, not only because she’s an award-winning news anchor but because she is savvy, smart, resilient, and kind. Kim Carrigan is an example of what I would call: grace under fire. Born and raised in Missouri, Kim got her start

on television at her college TV station and later climbed the ladder at stations throughout the Midwest. Married to her college sweetheart, Kim and her husband moved 5 times during her early years on the air, requiring him to pass the bar in 5 states! In this interview, Kim shares stories about reporting live when historic tragedies like 9/11, the death of John F. Kennedy, Jr and his wife Carolyn Bessett, and the Boston Marathon Bombings took place. She also talks about how devastating it was to be fired while pregnant, following contract disputes at Boston’s WHDH, where she and her co-host Randy Price were consistently #1 in the ratings; a story so controversial, it made the New York Times. When I asked her how she made it through this difficult time in her life, Kim replied: “I have the most supportive husband on earth and I made a decision that I was going to take care of my 4 year old son and wait for my baby girl to be born, but through it all, I learned a tough lesson: In life, we can do the best that we can do, but sometimes, the universe has a different plan.” For Kim, adversity gave way to good fortune when she moved to mornings on Boston’s Fox 25, enjoying 10 years of ratings superiority, during which time the unique ensemble cast of broadcasters became a national model for the network. Now the host of the podcast series Carrigan & Company carriganandcompanypod.com, Kim loves the concept of co-hosting with someone new every week. She’s living her best life, taking the reins of her own career while cherishing time with her husband, Randy, and their two grown children. Listener alert: I made Kim Carrigan cry in this interview. Sorry, not sorry! For 27 minutes of outstanding storytelling, grace and guts, just hit that download button. #womeninspiringwomen