Laura Vanderkam
Productivity expert and author of 168 Hours, I Know How She Does It, and Tranquility by Tuesday
Lauren Smith Brody
Founder of The Fifth Trimester movement and Co-Founder of the Chamber of Mothers
Photo Credit: Michelle Rose
Lauren Smith Brody is a powerful advocate for gender equity and systems to support all caregiving employees. She is the founder of The Fifth Trimester movement, which works to advance women's leadership and demonstrates through research that support for parents in the workplace drives economic growth. Brimming with wisdom, experience, and a thorough understanding of the challenges faced by parents and managers alike, Brody's talks and workshops offer actionable solutions for employers practical strategies for caregivers.
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About Lauren Smith Brody
Lauren Smith Brody is the founder of The Fifth Trimester movement and consulting, which helps parents and businesses collaborate to retain women and support all caregiving employees. She is also one of the co-founders of the Chamber of Mothers, “a collective movement to focus America’s priorities on mothers’ rights.” Pooling stakeholders and resources, the group’s first goal is to secure federal paid family and medical leave. Brody also writes a column for CEW.org called “The Mother of Wisdom.”
In her informative talks and presentations, Brody dispenses judgment-free advice to parents, managers, and coworkers that will ultimately improve workplace culture for all families, while extolling the benefits of investing in parents to keep women on the pipeline to leadership. Brody’s current ongoing engagements include a monthly motherhood column for Harper’s Bazaar and an eight-city pilot work/balance coaching program for the law firm Baker Hostetler.
Brody’s book, The Fifth Trimester: The Working Mom’s Guide to Style, Sanity, and Success After Baby, was a simultaneous bestseller in the Amazon categories of motherhood, women and business, and cultural anthropology. This funny, frank guide for new mothers is packed with honest and comforting advice from 800 moms, from how to ask for flextime to strategies for pumping on airplanes and fighting sleep deprivation.
The Fifth Trimester has been featured in The New York Times, on Good Morning America, CNN.com, and dozens more outlets, and Brody has been a featured speaker at companies and organizations including Facebook, Fried Frank, The New York Times, Google, American Express, The Wing, GLG, Rackspace, Liberty Mutual, PwC, Fisher Phillips, The Wharton Women’s Summit, and more. As an entrepreneur who can’t quit journalism, Brody writes regularly about the intersection of business and motherhood for, among others, The New York Times, Slate, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Elle.
A longtime leader in the women’s magazine industry, Brody was previously the executive editor of Glamour magazine, where she ran the editorial staff and produced the magazine’s annual Women of the Year awards, honoring luminaries like Dr. Maya Angelou and Hillary Clinton. Raised in Ohio, Texas, and Georgia, she now lives in New York City with her husband and two young sons.
Download the Company Reads discussion guide for The Fifth Trimester.
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Speaking Topics
Not “Just a Nice Thing to Do”: The R.O.I. of Support for Caregiving Employees
As the fastest growing identity group in the workforce, 73% of employees are caregivers in their personal lives, responsible for their children, their aging parents, and often, both. Organizations that provide caregiving benefits for their employees see a significant business payoff (an R.O.I. of 18x for every dollar invested!) along with more stable, innovative teams. In this talk, Brody lays out how to retain stressed-out, talented working parents and how to innovate alongside them toward a Great Reimagining of work. Sharing the strategies she’s developed for her consulting clients in tech, big law, education, finance, medicine, and the service industry, Brody defines the benefits, opportunities, and culture that create a positive full-team impact and keep valuable employees in the pipeline to leadership—all endorsed by research on the return on investment for caregiver support.
The Five-Generation Workforce, Unlocked
The gap in expectations about work between generations can feel unbreachable, but the secret of managing and motivating the broadest age range of workers ever is to tap into something universal: everyone is a caregiver for someone. Lauren Smith Brody shares how we can use shared personal values to foster professional communication, empathy, innovation, and productivity across the generations. By learning how to build emotional intelligence and set realistic personal and professional boundaries, teams can better support each other, fight stress, and deliver their best work.
How to Help Employees Thrive Before and After a Leave From Work
In her bestselling book, Lauren Smith Brody gave parents a close-up look at what she learned from 800+ new working moms and 100+ studies and experts about “the fifth trimester” when many parents return to work. Now she takes that research and applies it to family and medical leaves of various kinds, including elder care, spousal care, mental health leave, and caring for older kids with special needs, too. In this series of workshops, Brody covers: Off-ramping: Planning a leave with personal sensitivity and team support, On-ramping: Supporting a successful return to work after a leave, and The big reframe on family leave: How life transitions can fuel long term growth
More Than Just Treading Water: Work (and Parent) With Purpose
In this empowering lecture, Lauren Smith Brody teaches how to survive and grow as a working parent or caregiver in our new hybrid-ish, flat-ish, authentic-ish work world. She provides strategies for managing shifting return-to-office goals, handling childcare shortages, negotiating the division of labor in multiple-income homes, boundary setting for people pleasers, and staying ambitious and finding meaning in your work now.
The Hidden Power of “Not There Yet”: How to Turn Personal Uncertainty Into Progress For All
Drawing on her own career transformation, evidence-based research, and countless lessons from others in big life transitions, Brody offers a clear, actionable plan for how to come out on the other side of uncertainty with purpose and power. This inspirational rally cry of a keynote is for anyone who’s ever wondered: Can I be part of the solution?
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Praise for Lauren Smith Brody
Lauren made an incredible impact at the ICGS Educating Girls Symposium. Her presentation was truly the perfect close to what was an outstanding gathering, and it was a privilege to witness the inspiration, insight, and energy she shared with our delegates. Our entire girls’ school community is grateful to her for the important work that she does on behalf of girls and women every day. It is meaningful, and it is noticed.
— International Coalition of Girls’ SchoolsPraise for The Fifth Trimester
Brody takes on the role of a wise mentor who’s just a bit more chic than most of us but who takes us under her wing nonetheless.
— BooklistBrody writes nimbly and wisely about a subject she is well versed in: the conflicts, struggles, and triumphs of returning to work after having a baby. . . . Working moms will find a wealth of ideas to help navigate the challenging transition period in this friendly and practical guide.
— Publishers WeeklyReturning to work can be challenging, but Brody is a friendly and reassuring guide with a simple message: You can do this. It will get better. Packed with helpful tips and inspiring stories, The Fifth Trimester is the manual new moms need for succeeding on the job and in life.
— Laura Vanderkam, author of I Know How She Does ItThe women featured in Brody’s book offer advice for coping emotionally that runs the gamut from learning how to not blame yourself for mistakes to not make any major career decisions in your first few months back to work.
— The Atlanta Journal-Constitution[A] no-BS guide to help moms, particularly new moms, cope with all the demands of the real world . . . like how the hell do you return to work, take care of another life, and somehow carve out time in the day for, you know, yourself?
— Shape.com[Brody] is a passionate advocate. . . . She provides tangible tips and helpful advice from women who have been there and who more than survived, they thrived.
— CNNA book you MUST read if you are returning to work after the birth of a child. . . . I loved it and you will too.
— Lois P. Frankel, Ph.D., author of the New York Times-bestselling Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office -
Books by Lauren Smith Brody
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Featured Title
The Fifth Trimester
“An invaluable guide. . . . Brody’s book shows that the absolute lack of public policy to support working families makes an already tough situation worse. And while we need to work to change that, in the meantime, she makes clear: you’re not alone, you’re not crazy, and she’s got your back.” —Brigid Schulte, author of the New York Times bestselling Overwhelmed: How to Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time
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