Get Well With: Marika Frumes

Meet The Founder

What are your daily wellness non-negotiables? ‍

As a founder with a newborn and toddler, my routine looks much different these days, these are the essentials. Warm lemon water in the AM, a super green smoothie (spirulina and barley grass are always included), a high-quality multivitamin and probiotic (currently using WeNatal and Seed). At night I’ve been loving using a magnesium oil (Behrhaus) for optimizing sleep. 

What made you want to focus on building community? How did you know you wanted to focus on a moms group? 

When it comes to community, everything I’ve ever created has come from a personal need. When I crave a certain experience and can’t find it, I tend to manifest it. I am a manifestor according to Human Design, which is in line with initiating ideas into the world. When I was pregnant, I felt a deep desire to connect with other women going through the same things and despite trying, couldn’t find an avenue to do so. When I couldn’t find my “village": I took matters into my own hands and using Facebook rallied all the pregnant women in my network, starting the first “mysha pod.” I had no idea I was building a community, I was simply creating the space that I was craving at that moment. Turns out many other women had the same need…

How do you balance your role as a founder and leader of Mysha with your own experiences as a mother?‍

I’m continuously learning to set new boundaries, mostly with myself. 

As a founder, what have been some of the most rewarding aspects of creating Mysha?‍

Knowing that we are helping so many women’s mental health and reassuring them that they aren’t alone on this journey.
Helping facilitate countless connections that have led to new friendships, jobs, housing swaps, investments etc … These things are the core of mysha and why we exist.

The concept of self-care is often emphasized for moms. How do you incorporate self-care practices into your life?‍

For me, self-care comes down to checking in with myself daily and acting on what the mind and body are calling me to do.

At this point in my life, I don’t have as much time for traditional self-care, however I do prioritize sound mental health! For me, that means time with friends and my mysha community. Those moments of intentional connection are literally soul food. 

To ensure I am also giving my physical body TLC, I will pre-book a monthly massage and bi-weekly acupuncture sessions. I also ensure I am getting good nutrients and have a solid supplement plan. 

About Mysha

‍Can you share the inspiration behind starting Mysha? What motivated you to create this community?

All the things that I saw on IG catered to the rosy, commercial experience of motherhood...and none of it resonated with who I was. One night, I found myself googling "down to earth pregnant influencers" with the intention to find someone I could at least follow to feel connected from afar. At that moment, I gave myself a silent eye roll and realized that what I needed didn't exist...  a group of women going through this exact thing at the same time in a similar place to me. That was the moment that the seed for Mysha was planted. 

No one will understand your experience as much as another mother who’s going through it at the same time… ‍

We’d love to hear about the ethos behind Mysha and what makes it different than other mom groups.

There’s so much out there for taking care of our babies, Mysha is for the mom. We exist to support women in their transition to motherhood by offering them intimate connections and facilitated experiences.

We support a mom with resources, information and vetted recommendations however the most powerful element of mysha is our community. Our members are some of the most inspiring new moms in America who live bold lives and have strong identities outside of their children. Optimizing everyone’s wisdom, we’ve cultivated a culture of asks and gives which creates an abundant environment of support and resources for all of life's various needs.

‍What kind of support and resources does Mysha provide for mothers?

Outside of a “primary pod” which is based on delivery date, we have neighborhood pods across most areas in NYC, LA and Miami. This ensures you always have a community of moms in your immediate vicinity, who often turn into best friends! These are also the women guiding you through the insanity of year 1 of motherhood… 

Mysha also has niche pods to connect the various interests in the community (founders, twin mom, investors, solo moms et). This takes mysha from being a “mom group” to a powerhouse of a network available 24/7. 

We have a high-impact resource library, which is a gold mine of trusted resources that has been crowd sourced from our members. This means vetted, providers, brands, guides et. Almost any question a mom raises for support, we are able to point her in the right direction. As part of this library we also have a list of favorites and discount codes, saving our members time and money. 

Mysha isn’t just a community, it’s a powerful network. 

What upcoming events, initiatives, or projects can members of Mysha look forward to?

In 2024, we will continue hosting  dinners, lunches, morning coffees, wellness classes, and educational virtual programming. At all these experiences, we bring top experts in their fields while also making time for our members to meaningfully connect with each other. I see our most important task at all these experiences is making sure our members get to find points of connection with one another to build friendships and relationships that elevates them. We will also host 2 retreats, these are life changing from what we’ve heard from our members… 

Parenting advice is abundant, often overwhelming for new moms. How does Mysha navigate the balance between offering advice and promoting individual parenting choices?

We’re confident you’ve gotten an earful of “advice” and we aren’t here to offer you more. We see our role as matchmakers. We connect you to like valued moms and vetted resources that you can access when you need! Once you get to know and trust your pod, you’ll be thrilled to get the advice you ask for, from your peers.

We’ve also crowd sourced the most common asks from the past three years of pod cohorts and created a robust library with authentic recommendations, discount codes and vetted advice from modern moms like you.

‍Can you share a memorable or touching story from a member of Mysha that highlights the impact of community support during motherhood?

We recently got this testimonial from one of our members, it speaks to why moms join mysha and the impact we are making.  “Joining mysha has been one of the contributing factors in helping me overcome the overwhelm and anxiety of my postpartum journey with my twins. I felt so lonely and anxious with my new normal and feeling  like I would never get back to “me”. I felt bored and overwhelmed at the same time with my life, feeling like I was the only one going through these feelings. Joining Mysha was a game changer for my confidence and mood. Knowing I have this community has done more than provide the connection that I desperately needed. It’s provided excitement as I look forward to events with amazing women to connect, laugh, cry, feel seen. It’s gotten me out of my postpartum funk and made me feel hopeful in my pursuits because I know I have other women supporting me.”  

To join Mysha, please apply here.