January 19, 2022 / Mom &… Podcast Episode 54 / Guest: Jill Smokler, Creator of Scary Mommy, and the She’s Got Issues podcast
Click below to listen and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts!
Show Summary
Jill Smokler joined us this week to talk about the journey from building the wildly successful website, Scary Mommy, to figuring out her next steps now that she’s out of the “mommy” role. Her children are older, and the days of writing about parenting little ones are long past. So now what? We talked about the process of figuring out who we are at this stage, and what our careers – and lives – look like now.
Jill shared a little about her future plans, including a new “She’s Got Issues” podcast in the works. We can’t wait to listen!
More About Jill Smokler
What started as an innocent on-line baby book in early 2008 to chronicle Jill Smokler’s stay-at-home days with her children, quickly transformed into a vibrant community of parents, brought together by a common theme: Parenting doesn’t have to be perfect.
Scary Mommy rapidly grew and amassed a following of a million plus imperfect moms across the US and beyond, becoming the number one parenting brand in the country. In 2015, the site was acquired by Vinit Bharara of the media company Some Spider, LLC. After almost three years acting as Chief Content Officer, Jill departed the company in 2018.
Jill is also the New York Times bestselling author of Simon and Schuster’s Confessions of A Scary Mommy and Motherhood Comes Naturally (And Other Vicious Lies). Her honest take on parenting has appeared in countless publications and on television programs including The Today Show, Good Morning America, Nightline, Bethenny and Fox and Friends. In 2017, Forbes magazine named Jill a top ten parenting influencer.
Topics From This Episode (Complete transcript is available below… scroll to the bottom!)
- Inner critic (check out this fluffy representation of Missy’s inner critic, a gift from Susanne)
- Working with therapists and coaches (like past guest, Ann Imig!)
- The myth of motivation
- Isolation for parents of young children
- Sex and dating in your 40s
- Susanne’s post about Hugh Howey (Seashell-related, see: the Look, Listen, Learn segment)
Connect with Jill
- She’s Got Issues – subscribe for updates about the new podcast, coming soon!
- Jill’s previous Generation EX podcast
Look, Listen, Learn
Missy
- The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
- Tom Papa
- The messiness of progress, and living in chaos (temporarily)
Jill
- Mrs. Wilson on PBS
- Taylor Swift, especially the long version of All Too Well
- The Sound of the Sea by Cynthia Barnett
Susanne
- Encanto
- The Ten-Year Challenge on social media – moms, take pictures!
- Get more impact by doing less, the Dan Blank way, as discussed on the #AmWriting podcast
Connect With the Mom &… Podcast
- Please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts! If you’re so inclined to give us a 5-star rating, we’ll love you forever. Who couldn’t use a little extra love?
- Leave us a message – via voicemail or use our form – with your questions for experts, or suggestions for future episodes.
- Check out our website, where you can find links to all the things!
- Follow our Facebook Page
- Join our private Facebook Group (All you have to do is ask to join, and then be nice once you’re in. So easy!)
- Follow us on Instagram
- Become a patron – check us out on Patreon!
Musical Notes
Our delightfully happy intro and outro theme music, “We Will Get Through This” is performed by Young Presidents, and used under license from Shutterstock.
Watch this episode on our YouTube channel
