We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chelsea Barbine a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Chelsea, thank you so much for joining us today and appreciate you talking about a sensitive topic. It’s unfortunately relevant to so many in the community as layoffs have been on the rise recently, and so we’d appreciate hearing your story and how you overcame being let go?
Oh, goodness. I can actually speak to this question from two different occasions. The first, not necessarily from a traditional layoff. I, like many, many others, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, was impacted both personally and professionally by COVID.
At the time, I was four years into my career as a professional trainer in the fitness space. And I want to say I was maybe six to nine months in just having gone full time as a trainer. So meaning aside from the handful of group fitness classes that I was teaching, which I was paid for at a traditional class rate, I was 100 % commission and I felt leading up like truly just before the COVID quarantine shutdown happened, I had just had my first like of back to back months of making my monthly breakdown of my annual salary in corporate.
Now I will say, again, this is a very unique situation, given that I wasn’t the only one going through a significant transition and experiencing a lot of fear that came with the events of COVID. But I will say all in all, it was a very positive transition for me. I, as much as I loved what I was doing, working for a boutique Fitness Center. I was truly like weeks, weeks away from getting married and honestly just a couple of years out of starting a family. And in hindsight, I’m not really sure how supportive that career path would have been for me throughout the early days of motherhood.
So while I know that the pandemic itself had a tremendous ripple effect on so many others than just myself, I truly do believe that for me personally it was the redirect towards what God and the universe had planned for me.
With that furlough, I honestly think I became one of the most healthiest versions of myself. I also too had the capacity to think about further education. I was really coming off of, quite honestly, a handful of years of studying Pilates as my area of specialty. And while health coaching had come up and been recommended by a couple of members at the gym that I was working at it was something that I truly did not believe that I had time for. That is until I had what felt like all the time in the world.
Ironically, the second occurrence in which I can speak to this question on was an unexpected layoff from the company in which I was hired at given my health coaching certificate.
I will be honest and say that this layoff was very bittersweet for me. There were a lot of tears, a lot of tears. And I will be honest, I cried a lot following the furlough back in 2020. But I think that was more so in regards to the personal influences that were happening at the same time.
When I was laid off by my previous employer in 2023, it was, it’s interesting because it’s not like I was completely blindsided. Because deep down, I think I had a feeling that it might be coming. There had just been some decisions that were made at the executive level that had sparked a little bit of my curiosity and I think some subconscious preparation.
I will never forget the Friday before it happened, my husband and I were walking our daughter and our dog around our neighborhood. It’s like our go -to, like after dinner, we take the family walk around the neighborhood when the weather is nice. And I remember looking to him and telling him like, hey babe, like the energy is feeling just like different. I don’t think I’m going to get any bad news anytime soon, at least not until like after the summer is over, like maybe come fall when they’re working on budgets. But I just want you to know, like everything is going to be fine. Like it’s going to be fine. I really want to be supporting moms, you know, in their preparation for postpartum and even afterwards. I now have an abundance of experience creating content. I feel so confident in my ability to coach and hold space for others, it’s gonna be totally fine. And my worst case scenario, I’ll just go back into a gym and I’ll just start teaching. It’ll like, it’s all gonna work itself out. And as we were walking around, and he’s listening, you know, I remember laughing when he had asked me if I was trying to convince myself or him, which honestly, I think it was both.
And just as my gut anticipated. Just four days later, I got the unfortunate news.
To my surprise, my support system was extremely encouraging of me waiting before making any rash decisions, before jumping back into a job search. We were truly diving into summer. We were entering into the last month of our daughter’s first year since being born and as uncomfortable as it was for me, I did just that. We ended up dropping our daughter down from full -time daycare to two half days a week, which meant I got to spend so much more time being a very present mom, which is something that truly lights me up. Being that it was warmer weather, we spent a lot of time outdoors. We were down the shore. I read a lot of books. And I made it a priority for myself every day to listen to inspirational self -development -y like content to: one, allow myself to stay in this space of education which I truly thrive in. As well as just a very optimistic and my authentic manifesting generator energy.
And I will say, before I knew it one Saturday afternoon. It was after a yoga class. That was another thing, I took a lot of yoga. After a yoga class, I had hopped in the shower and had this extreme, I don’t even, like wild download. I could not get the suds out of my hair fast enough to grab my phone and just start fiercely typing away my brain dump of what I would ultimately create as my first offering for my business, Core Care Cultivate to support women in preparing for their fourth trimester so they could best care for their little ones without compromising themselves.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Hi, I’m Chelsea, wife, mama, yogi, host of the Cultivate with Chelsea podcast and founder of Core Care Cultivate. And I help expecting mamas prepare for their fourth trimester so they can best care for their little ones without compromising their sleep, sanity, or self -identity.
The truth is I always wanted to have a family, but the older I got, the more nervous I became. Between the movies, stories from family and friends, posts that I was overwhelmed by on social media, both pregnancy and postpartum were less than enticing to say the least. I was 29 years old when my husband and I conceived our daughter, which is not quote unquote old by any means, but I will admit I was very much set in my ways. And all of the “just wait” warnings while well intended from loved ones, and honestly complete strangers, was the fuel to my Leo, Enneagram 3, and oldest of siblings fire.
On a mission to do things differently, I read about the birth process, I listened to as many positive birth stories as possible, I practiced daily meditation, prenatal yoga, I prepared my home not just for our baby’s arrival, but my postpartum recovery. And I even took relationship quizzes with my husband to prepare for the anticipated shifts in our own dynamic. Bless him! Some of the practices worked and some didn’t. But I ultimately felt confident in continuing my beloved self -care while learning to care for my newborn, which was a victory in my eyes.
Now, I’ve been in the wellness space since 2016, and I’ll admit, perhaps that put me in some sort of bubble, but I didn’t think my decision to prioritize my postpartum preparation alongside my birth and baby care courses was that unique until I realized how vastly different my first year of motherhood was from the stories I continue to hear of others. Don’t get me wrong, I am human and I find myself challenged in motherhood, trust me. Yet in looking back, I truly believe that as my mother says, I broke the chain.
Now mission to help other mamas actually enjoy life after birth, I created the Core Care Cultivate Methodology. Because unpopular opinion, I believe that we are forever postpartum. Because here’s the thing, a woman will never think, feel, or act the way she once did before her little ones – no matter how much time passes.
Unfortunately though, we live in a bounce back culture that tells women one day they will feel like their old selves and celebrates the rushed return to it, ultimately leaving moms feeling more overwhelmed, depleted, isolated, and unwell than ever before.
And it is my hope that the more mamas who understand, that postpartum is not a phase, the more motivated and supported they will be in receiving the education and practices to explore how to care for their core needs through the care habits that best support them to cultivate the postpartum life that they desire. Because honestly, at the end of the day, if my experience and the stories of dozens of others as told on the Cultivate with Chelsea podcast can validate, the moment we birth our little ones we are presented with the opportunity to rebirth ourselves.
Time and time again, it is acknowledged that the key to postpartum is prioritized preparation for the fourth trimester. And I am honored to have proven the Core Care Cultivate Methodology through validation of mothers who have taken both the Nested & Nourished course and joined me for live group coaching in the Cultivate Crew.
The health and happiness of the world truly resides in us mamas and I invite everyone to join me in supporting the collective.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Oh my God, I can only pick three? Oh, this is gonna be hard.
Well, one specifically stands out for me, and this is something that others have shared with me and have acknowledged, but also something that I truly do feel very strong in, and that would be communication.
I don’t know if people tell me all the time and I remember hearing as I was growing up like, oh Chelsea, you’re such an old soul. Like, I don’t know if that has anything to do with it or if I truly like genuinely enjoy communicating with others. I, not just like from a verbal perspective, but also nonverbal. Like I love, I always say like, gosh, I would love to be a fly on the wall and just like observe. You know what I mean? Like it’s just, it’s so interesting to me that we as humans have a way to verbalize ourselves and then also express ourselves from a nonverbal place, you know, just with our tone, with our energy, with our facial expressions, the body language. Honestly, even our silence, sometimes the silence tells you the most from someone.
But, I would say communication has always been really big for me and I’ve actually found a lot of that to be a crossover from not just this journey in entrepreneurship, but it was super valuable for me when I was in corporate. It’s been extremely important for me in not only my marriage, but as a mom and in so many different relationships and I think all in all in life, even with complete strangers.
And perhaps that’s why for me communication really stands out. I mean, my business at the heart of it, it’s forming connection with other moms and really supporting them during such a sacred time and to be able to hold the space for them and to really be able to talk about very delicate, challenging circumstances while also being able to help them put into words how they are feeling and not only from a challenging perspective, but also too from a very like joyous side of things as well.
But I think my communication skills have supported me so deeply in being able to articulate the vision that I have for the collective of moms as a whole through different platforms, through different offerings. And I’ll say probably the largest is my podcast and I talk. I talk not only literally to myself as I’m recording, but I can truly visualize the moms who are on the receiving end of it as I’m delivering a solo episode. I also, I love doing guest interviews, whether it’s an expert in the fields, whether it is a fellow mom, you know, and we’re truly just having a good candor.
And I don’t know, whether it’s through speech or through writing. I think being able to communicate is so incredibly important. And again, not just from the delivery side of things, but also on the receiving side of things.
Another quality that has been extremely impactful in my journey has been that I am very flexible. Not just literally, but truly figuratively. There, and this is again, in life, you know what I mean? There are so many things that are truly unexpected on the path of starting your own business. Starting my business wasn’t even on my radar. Like it truly wasn’t. I always kind of saw myself as, especially when starting a family, as someone who held a nine to five position. It always wanted to be with a brand that I truly admired that I loved wholeheartedly. That was something that I was not open to compromising on. But I think, again, that wasn’t really the path that I was led on. And the transition in and of itself from corporate to starting my own business required so much flexibility. This world, every day it’s like somewhat unchartered territory. There’s no one to report to, to ask questions to, to get advice from, which is so weird in and of itself. The day to day is, I mean, yes, you can carve out a schedule and you can have a set day ideally for each thing, but things are gonna come up left and right. You know, the opportunities there are going to come up. Any chance that you network and you meet someone, a new idea could spark, a new opportunity could present itself.
And I think too, like there’s just so much, there are so many learning curves and so much to learn, learning curve or not. There is just truly required the need to be flexible and basically roll with the punches because, while as the owner, we do have control, there are so many things outside of our control. And being the one who’s truly taking the brunt of it, whether you are a one woman or one man show, or you have a whole team underneath you the ability to take a moment and respond as best as possible as quickly as possible is of utmost importance. I mean, saying being flexible is important, it kind of feels like a cheat, but I think it feels like a cheat because it encompasses so much. You know, being flexible, it’s like you are adaptable, you’re open to change, and you’re open -minded. You’re not really stuck in this one – one track, like you have, there are so many things that we have our hands in and to be able to jump in and out from one project or one thing to the next, it can be a lot and it’s not for everyone. But I will say, the being open to change has been not only supportive for growth professionally, but also personally.
And there’s the last quality I will say and kind of ties, you know, to both of these, because again, thinking more of like those external factors that can influence us. I think at the end of the day, one of the other most impactful qualities that I have really been leaning into, growing into more, however you want to say it, has been my intuition. I like to think I’m very intuitive. And when I say that, it’s more so from like an authentic place. Somewhat yes, as far as like a response to others, but I am, I’ve been doing, if you’re not into human design, highly suggest looking into it. I’ve been like geeking out over it lately. I am actually led by my gut, like my sacral chakra.
So when they say like trust your gut, like that’s like actually meant for someone like me. And I think again, with all of the unknowns out there, all of the opportunities, all of the feedback constantly coming in, whether it’s internal feedback, again, this dialogue that like doesn’t really like kind of stop unless you get really good at it. I am working on setting boundaries for self communication, but not just internal, it’s the external feedback. Being able to have a sound place to check in with and really like, does this serve me? Is this going to serve my audience? It’s kind of like a me, you, we thing, right? If I’m being supported and my audience is being supported, then ultimately it’s gonna be a win, but it has to do all three.
And when I was coaching with a mentor back in fall of 2023, I remember her warning me of like, let go of the shiny objects. There’s gonna be so many different things that pop up along the way, especially in the very beginning and how important it is to truly stay grounded and stay focused on what are like the biggest, the biggest rocks that I want to like tackle or I want to start with the foundation. And again, just that ability to keep going back, going back.
My tips for all three of these truly, as silly as it sounds, is like, it’s just a practice. Maybe if you are on this entrepreneurial path, maybe the professional practice is not always the place that you feel most comfortable going in. Although I will say entrepreneurs tend to be very bold. So more power too, if you wanna just jump right on in and start practicing that communication with your audience, with colleagues, with employees, and I say colleagues, surely like other practitioners or other people in your network. Being flexible, just putting yourself out there, kinda seeing what happens. Really just gaging how are you responding to things that don’t work out, right? Or like random things that kind of pop up. And your intuition, I think, goodness, practicing with this is truly become, again, it’s something that I am working on every single day. It’s just promising yourself a daily check -in. Start off, you know, with once, one every day. And if it feels right, continue to kind of add in. But I will say what has been most helpful for me on my journey is starting off in the morning. It’s kind of like a morning greeting for myself. Since having my daughter, that doesn’t look the same every single day. For today, for example, she woke up at like 6 :15am and normally, I keep saying this for the past week, normally she wakes up at 7 :30am, but for the past week, week and a half, she’s been waking up at like six. So maybe that’s becoming her new normal?
So still being able to carve out that time for yourself, no matter what your schedule looks like, is so important. But at the end of the day, truly practice, practice, practice.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
Yes, I am always looking to connect with fellow perinatal practitioners and I am always, always, always interested in connecting with expecting or new moms. Oh my goodness. One from just like a pure, hi, let’s get to know each other. From a fellow practitioner standpoint, it is always so invigorating for me to meet others in this industry and truly just learn more about what you’re doing, feel that energetic exchange of like the inspiration, also to like thank you for doing what you’re doing.
There are so many areas of opportunity for perinatal women to receive more support. And I know that I am one drop in the ocean of all of the resources that are needed out there, not just for the moms specifically, but the moms caring for their babies, like truly for their little ones, for their families, for their communities. The health and happiness of the world resides in us mothers. And I know that I am just, again, that drop in the ocean of what is needed out there. And that being said, there are so many resources that I am aware of and so many that I am not. I just… Just, I’m gonna say within the past couple of months, I connected with a birth storyteller, like a coach who’s actually being trained to help women tell their birth stories, specifically to support them through traumatic experiences. Like, what? I had no idea that that existed.
So truly, it’s so eye -opening for me to have a network of people to be able to refer clients out to. And as I mentioned, you know, I am the host of the Cultivate with Chelsea podcast, and I’m always looking for guests to have on. And that’s not just from a practitioner standpoint, but also too from like a mom feature as well. Like I would love to have more women on to share their birth stories, to share their experiences. 1000%. So yes.
Always interested to hear too about collaboration, not just on the podcast, but also what services you have that might be able to support my community. How can I help promote what you’re doing? And then vice versa, you know, I’m, I love the ability through the virtual space to be able to connect people from all around the world. I’ve already been able to do that, to serve people in different countries. And it truly is such an honor to be, to just to have that opportunity to have that capability. Technology is like such a love hate for me. That is one thing that I truly appreciate technology for is to being able to connect us to so many people that we wouldn’t interact with from a day to day, from a community perspective. So yes, I’m always looking to meet other practitioners to talk about potential partnership or collaboration.
And always, always, always looking to connect with expecting a new moms. Always. And not just even from the podcasting perspective, but if anything that you, you know, have come across throughout this interview, piques your interest. You’re just curious. It might not even be for you. Maybe it’s for a loved one. Or again, just just so you’re aware of what’s out there and I would be more than happy to connect and share. I will say.
The best way to learn more about me is more than likely gonna be on my website or through the podcast, pending the amount of time or the speed in which you’re interested to get to know me.
My website is corecarecultivate.com. And again, the podcast is Cultivate with Chelsea. It’s available on Apple, Spotify. I wanna say Amazon, maybe even iHeart. All the places, look it up! But if you’re looking to directly reach out, you can also send me an email at chelsea@corecarecultivate.com and I so look forward to connecting with you!
Contact Info:
- Website: corecarecultivate.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chelsea.barbine/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseabarbine/
- Other: Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cultivate-with-chelsea/id1711775028
Image Credits
Angela Drakas Photography
