“My work is my most interesting. My family is my most important.”

One of Sarah’s chief inspirations—even to this day—is her own mother, whom M.M.LaFleur is named after. Her mom was a trendsetter and pioneer who introduced the mail-order catalog style of shopping to the Japanese market in the ’80s and ’90s.

While her mother’s 24/7 work ethic—and the grind of running a business—originally turned Sarah off to the idea of becoming an entrepreneur herself, it also left a mark that would prove enduring. 

“She’s the woman I admire the most,” Sarah explains. “She was the one who showed me how fun work can be. She was always excited for Monday. And I think it wasn’t just because she was ready to get rid of us. Work was—and is still—her passion.”

“Growing up, she would always say, my work is my most interesting, my family is my most important. So, I always thought, okay, one day, I’d love to have something that I feel as passionately about as she does about her career.”

“This company is named after her because I would love for women to be able to find that kind of passion and—balance is a weird word—but yeah, I think she was able to find her own balance that she was happy with.”

Expanding the definition of motherhood means embracing one’s village.

When Sarah decided to pursue surrogacy, her psychiatrist reminded her of the bigger picture: “Your goal is to have a family, not to get pregnant.” “That was a really great reframing for me,” Sarah recalled.

And while the surrogacy agency insisted on using the technical terms “intended parent” and “gestational carrier,” Sarah says, “I never particularly liked that. Even though Trisha, our surrogate, always said to me, ‘You’re the parents, I’m just here to take care of them.’ I actually feel like she was also their mom.”

“A mother is someone who takes care of the children. And I think you can have more than one mother. I think of my nanny who raised me as very much my second mother. And my nanny who helps me take care of my kids right now, her name is Emma, and we call her ‘Emma-ma.’ I really think that Trisha was the mom to my kids while she was carrying them.”

“The surrogacy agencies are very determined to say, ‘She is a gestational carrier. She is not the parent, she is not the mother,’ and I appreciate that sentiment, too. So I’m not trying to deny that. I guess I just mean to say I’m so grateful.”

“Family is a respite from work, and work is a respite from family.”

For busy CEOs, career can become a 24/7 focus (as evidenced by Sarah’s own mother). But she explained that having three young children actually provides relief from work. 

“My schedule is way more packed, and I feel like I’m constantly running behind,” she says, “but I think the kids are helpful, because when I’m with them, I really can’t think of anything else. It’s a zoo. It’s chaos in our house, and I think as a result, even when things can be hard, it’s a welcome distraction.” 

“Justice Ginsburg once said that family is a respite from work, and work is a respite from family. And I really feel that way. I sometimes wish there was also alone time. Nobody warned me that the weekends were now going to be more exhausting than the weekdays. My husband says, ‘On Monday we go to work to rest. And I’m like, yeah, right on.”