Last week, thirty women gathered around a table in Los Angeles. Between them, they’ve brought over seventy beautiful humans into this world. They’re leading companies, building startups, creating art, managing investments, and pioneering new industries.
And when I stood up to welcome them, I realized something: This is no longer just a dinner. It’s become the space we’ve been craving all along.
How It Started
Seven months ago, Kim Chappell and I hosted a dinner during SXSW in Austin. We had no agenda, no talking points, no carefully crafted plan. We just had this feeling that if I could get remarkable women in a room together (women who were leading their families while building meaningful careers) something important would happen.
We called it “The Breadwinners Dinner” because it was fun and catchy. Because these women were breadwinners in the traditional sense. But we didn’t yet understand what that word would come to mean.
What happened that night exceeded anything we could have imagined.
The Question That Changed Everything
A few months into building this platform (taking calls, planning dinners, recording podcast episodes) my five-year-old daughter overheard one too many conversations. She’s incredibly observant, always listening even when you don’t think she is.
One day, out of nowhere, she looked up at me and asked: “Momma, what’s a Breadwinner?”
I paused.
I could have given her the dictionary definition. The one about money and paychecks and being the primary earner.
But instead, I told her this:
“A Breadwinner is someone who brings things into the home. Important things. We bring love. We bring happiness. We bring safety and security. We bring joy and laughter. We bring the energy that makes a house feel like a home.”
And as I was explaining it to her, I realized: this is what Breadwinning really means. It’s not just about the paycheck. It’s about everything we carry and everything we bring.
What We Carry
We carry the financial richness that builds our families’ futures.
We carry the operational excellence that orchestrates daily life.
We carry the professional expertise that our kids watch and learn from.
We carry the courage to redesign systems that never accounted for us.
What We Bring
But here’s what else is true:
We bring innovation to industries that weren’t built with us in mind.
We bring compassion and authenticity to leadership that desperately needs it.
We bring resilience that comes from managing complexity every single day.
We bring the courage to redesign family systems that never accounted for our ambition.
And most importantly? We bring each other.
The Moment Everything Shifted
At that first dinner in Austin, something extraordinary happened.
A woman stood up to speak. She had sold her company for billions. She was an empire builder in every sense of the word. The kind of success story we all read about and aspire to.
She told us that she came to the dinner because she was lonely and needed friends.
Another woman, an absolute powerhouse in her industry, admitted she battles imposter syndrome every day.
And here’s what happened next: No one offered judgment. No one jumped in with advice or solutions. Instead, there was recognition. There was empathy. There was solidarity.
That’s when I knew this conversation needed to exist. Not just once, but ongoing. Not just in Austin, but everywhere.
The LA Dinner: Wellness Done Well
Last week’s dinner in LA had a different focus. We wanted to talk about something we rarely prioritize: ourselves, and our values.
Because here’s the truth: we can’t keep bringing our best selves to everyone around us if we’re running on empty. We can’t pour from an empty cup. We can’t bring joy if we’re depleted.
This evening was about wellness, done well. About putting on our oxygen mask first. About creating space to focus on ourselves so we can actually breathe, so we can actually show up as the people we want to be.
We took the time for guests to enter their Unicorn Space, thanks to our special guest, Eve Rodsky. And once again, magic happened. Real conversations. Authentic vulnerability. The space and realness between the overly curated social media feeds.
For the Aspiring Breadwinners
For those of you who we call the aspiring, hopeful Breadwinners – who are building careers now and wondering how motherhood will fit into the equation. You’re exactly where you need to be. We hope you use this platform as your roadmap for the journey that’s to come for you.
You don’t have to figure it all out right now. You just need to know that when the time comes, you won’t be alone. There’s a community here waiting for you.
Today, We Launch
I’m excited to announce that The Breadwinners platform officially launches today.
Seven months of planning. Countless conversations. Two incredible dinners. And now, we’re opening the doors to everyone who needs this space.
But before I tell you what we’re launching, I want to share what I’m building this for: the goals that keep me going when the self-doubt creeps in.
My Goals for This Platform
To make every mom feel less guilty.
That’s it. That’s the core of everything.
Less guilty about whether they’re raising their children right. Less guilty about spending enough time with them. Less guilty about nurturing their marriage. Less guilty about taking care of themselves. Less guilty about being healthy enough. Less guilty about doing enough in their career.
The guilt is killing us. And I want to quiet that noise.
To replace individual struggle with community and agency.
For too long, we’ve been doing this alone. Carrying the weight in isolation. Keeping the secrets because we’re afraid of judgment. I want to create a space where struggle transforms into solidarity, where isolation becomes connection, and where we move from surviving to actually thriving.
To redefine what “Breadwinner” means.
When someone hears “Breadwinner,” I want them to think beyond the paycheck. I want them to see the full picture of what we bring: the financial richness, yes, but also the emotional richness, the systemic change, and the courage to redesign outdated structures. I want to expand this definition from a footnote to the headline of modern motherhood.
To celebrate rather than apologize.
We’re tired of the narratives about sacrifice and compromise. With the “you can’t have it all” conversation. I want to create a platform that celebrates women who are refusing the false choice. Who are asking “Why not both?” and then proving it’s possible, in our own way.
To build a digital tribe of experts who help us be whole.
Because being a Breadwinner isn’t just about earning. It’s about thriving in all dimensions of our lives. I want to connect you with female hormone specialists, pediatric nutritionists, top negotiators, marriage counselors, financial planners, career coaches: all the experts you need to support all of who you are.
To create a movement around what we carry and what we bring.
This isn’t just about helping individual women feel better. It’s about collectively changing the conversation. Changing workplace policies. Changing family systems. Changing what’s possible for the next generation. I want to move breadwinner mothers from the margins to the mainstream.
What Launches Today
Here’s what we’re building together:
🎙️ The Breadwinners Podcast
Intimate conversations with remarkable breadwinner mothers and the experts who support us. Raw, real, unfiltered. Launching with our first episodes featuring women who are living this journey and sharing what it actually takes.
📧 The Newsletter – launching in Q1 2026
Insights, strategies, and stories delivered to your inbox. Not more advice about “balance.” Real wisdom from women who are redesigning the rules.
🍽️ Breadwinner Dinners
Intimate gatherings expanding to cities across the country. These aren’t networking events. They’re spaces where we tell the truth, share the secrets, and build genuine community.
💬 The Community
A place to connect with other breadwinner mothers and aspiring breadwinners. To ask questions. To share victories. To admit struggles. To find your people.
The Founding Family
The women who attended that first Austin dinner (and now the LA dinner) are the founding family of The Breadwinners. You believed when this was just an idea. You showed up when showing up meant taking a chance on something unproven. You carried me when I had tsunamis of self-doubt.
And now I’m asking you to carry this conversation forward with me.
An Invitation
As you go about your day-to-day life in the weeks and months ahead, include The Breadwinners in your conversations. Share what resonates. Tell your stories. Invite other women who need this space.
Because every time we share what we carry, the load gets lighter.
Every time we celebrate what we bring, we give someone else permission to do the same.
Every time we tell the truth instead of performing perfection, we create a crack in the facade that allows real connection to flow through.
This is how movements start. Not with massive marketing campaigns or celebrity endorsements. But with real women saying to other real women: “You need to see this. You need to hear this. You’re not alone.”
The Bottom Line
When my daughter asked me what a Breadwinner is, I gave her an answer I hope she’ll carry with her forever.
But the real answer?
It’s you. It’s all of you reading this. It’s the woman next to you who’s also juggling calls and carpool, presentations and parent-teacher conferences, boardrooms and bedtime routines.
We are what Breadwinning means. Not just the money we earn, but the love we bring. The systems we redesign. The courage we model. The community we create.
So thank you. Thank you for everything you carry. And thank you for everything you bring.
With gratitude,
Alexis
Founder, The Breadwinners
Join us today:
📧 Sign up for our newsletter
🎙️ Listen to The Breadwinners Podcast
📱 Follow us on Instagram [@wearethebreadwinners]
🍽️ Request an invitation to a dinner in your city
Have a story to share? Email us at hello@thebreadwinners.co
