Two ways to work together.
Both built around real transformation. Both limited on purpose.
You built a career.
Then you had a child.
Now you're figuring out who you are in both.
You're at the peak of your career. Leadership role. Strong compensation. A great partnership. And you decide — it's time to start a family.
Nobody told you that the version of you who walks back into that office after maternity leave would feel like a stranger in her own life. That the confidence you built over a decade could feel so fragile. That you'd sit in a meeting where you used to lead the room and find yourself wondering if you still belong there.
Nobody talks about the grief of leaving behind a version of yourself you worked so hard to build. Or the guilt of wanting your career back when you love your child more than anything. Or the loneliness of being surrounded by high-achievers and not knowing a single one who admits to feeling exactly this.
That's who this is for.
Returning to work after having a child isn't just a scheduling problem. It's a neurological shift, an identity reconfiguration, and a relationship renegotiation — all happening at the same time, while you're also trying to perform at a high level professionally.
Most support out there treats it like a logistics problem. This work treats it like what it actually is.
The Motherhood by Design cohort is an exclusive, in-person experience for 5 women in the Chicago area. The work goes deep — mind, body, career, relationships, expectations, identity. Members leave with more than a plan: clarity about who they are now, and what they're building next.
What's included
- A small, intentional cohort — 5 women maximum, selected by application
- In-person sessions in Chicago — full presence, no Zoom
- Holistic approach: career strategy, identity work, physical wellness, relationships, and mindset
- AI-powered personalized tools and frameworks to use beyond the cohort
- Access to Zeba's EY consulting frameworks applied to your personal career architecture
- Ongoing peer support within the cohort
Who this is for
- High-achieving professionals returning to work after maternity leave
- Mothers who feel like they've lost their professional identity and want it back — redesigned
- Women who are done with generic career advice and want something that accounts for the whole picture
- Chicago-area women who value in-person depth over virtual convenience
Investment
[Price TBD — set before launch]
Cohort size is five — spaces go to waitlist members first.
A speaker who has lived the topics she talks about.
The talks sit at the intersection of technology, leadership, and the deliberate design of a career and life. Every session is grounded in 19 years of practice — not theory — drawing on experience as a senior leader at EY, a founder, a mother, and a woman who has navigated all of these identities at the same time.
Topics
- The motherhood advantage: how having a child sharpens the skills that matter most in leadership
- Designing your career architecture: building a professional life that holds the personal one without deciding between them
- AI and the human pace: why the real transformation challenge isn't technical, it's organizational
- The leaky pipeline: what organizations must do to retain mothers in tech and leadership
- Redesign, not balance: a new framework for ambitious women navigating multiple identities
Speaking formats
Keynote
45–60 minutes
Panel & Roundtable
Flexible duration
Workshop
Half-day format
Podcast Guest
Interview format
Past stages
- GitHub Universe — speaker
- Women Impact Tech — featured speaker
- EY global forums and panels — women in technology and leadership