This Mother Means Business: Strategy, Advice, and Support for Mom Entrepreneurs · Laura Sinclair

Profit Isn't a Dirty Word (But It Can't Be the Only Word) with Tara Milburn of Ethical Swag

·42 min·2 clips

Tara Milburn says, "profit is not a dirty word," but people, planet, and profit have to stay in balance.

Tara Milburn comes on to talk about profit, values, and why sustainable swag matters. She starts from the idea that big contracts can look appealing, but that is not enough if the business is not still aligned. She walks through an earlier startup that had real potential but never felt right because she and the other founder were not aligned on values. That mismatch mattered more than the upside. Tara says she walked away. From there, she describes taking a contract with a crown corporation in Nova Scotia. It led to a full-time role. Over time, she became director of foreign direct investment for Cape Breton Island. The job worked for a season, especially while she was raising kids. That part matters. But as the years went on, the work became more bureaucratic and less like her. She talks plainly about having an urgency to get things done. Government and crown-corporation structures did not always move that way. The tension wore on her. Laura Sinclair keeps the episode grounded and lets Tara explain the path without sanding off the rough edges. That gives the episode room to breathe. The story keeps circling back to family. It also keeps circling back to fit. Those two things are linked here. Tara's point of view makes profit feel less like the whole story and more like one part of a larger, sturdier model. She is not selling a fantasy. She is describing what it takes to keep going. There is a practical edge in the way she frames business decisions. If the work no longer matches the person doing it, the success on paper starts to matter less. That is the hard truth in the episode. The episode is also about sustainability in a broader sense, not just materials or merchandise. It treats the work as something that has to hold up in real life. Laura and Tara keep returning to what happens when ambition meets family life. Kids are in the picture. Time is in the picture. Energy is in the picture. The result is a steady look at leadership that does not separate money from values. It also does not pretend that values are free. They have to be protected. Tara's own path gives the episode its weight. She has seen startup excitement, public-sector structure, and the pressure of making choices that hold up over time. That mix makes her perspective useful. There is no rush to turn everything into a lesson. The episode lets the story do the work. That gives it a more honest feel. What comes through most is the idea that a business should be able to carry a person's life, not consume it. That does not make it easy. It makes it real. The episode ends up feeling like a conversation between two people who understand that parenting changes the shape of ambition. It also understands that a business can be profitable and still need to be humane. For founders who are trying to build something meaningful, that is the useful part. Profit is present. So are purpose, capacity, and staying power. Tara's experience keeps the episode anchored in the everyday realities of running a business while parenting. That grounding is what makes the episode stick. Laura's questions keep nudging the discussion back to the human side of strategy. The result is practical without getting stiff. By the end, the episode leaves a clear question hanging in the air: what is the business actually for? That is the kind of question this show knows how to sit with.

As heard by us

Fit matters as much as growth when the person and the business stop lining up.

Tara Milburn opens by arguing that big contracts look good on paper, while her focus stays on keeping sustainable swag within reach for the people who actually want it.

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Why you'd press play

For the mom founder trying to grow without losing her values.

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