The Breadwinners Podcast
The Breadwinners Podcast
Alexis Contos
EP. 08 | Patrice Meagher on Building Systems to Support Working Moms in the Workplace
1 hour 1 minutes Posted Jan 20, 2026 at 12:00 pm.
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In this episode, Alexis Contos sits down with Patrice Meagher, a 20-year Commercial Real Estate veteran turned Founder and CEO of MilkMate. After spending two decades leasing millions of square feet in Manhattan , Patrice realized that while we can fly to space, the most "innovative" solution for pumping at work was still a storage closet or a bathroom stall.
Patrice shares her journey of leaving a successful corporate career to solve a problem that had plagued her through four children: the inefficiency and indignity of pumping in the workplace. She breaks down her famous "Coffee Pot Analogy" - asking men to imagine brewing their morning coffee in a bathroom stall while disrobing and carrying equipment back and forth - to illustrate the absurdity of the status quo.
In this conversation, Patrice discusses the "tipping point" for working mothers - that moment when one small thing (like a forgotten pump part) causes the mental load to crumble. She opens up about the daunting process of gaining FDA clearance for MilkMate , the wisdom she carries from her late father’s "Don’t Quit" motto , and why she believes working moms are the most efficient workers in the universe.
Whether you are an employer looking to support your team or a parent navigating the "drip effect" of balancing career and family , this episode offers a blueprint for how we can evolve the workplace—bird by bird, step by step.
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