The Grit & Grace Leadership Podcast

Turning Heartache into Hope: Randi's Journey Through Fertility Struggles to Inspiring Change

• Jen Kelly • Season 2 • Episode 2

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In this episode, we break the barriers of shame and open the discussion for women in leadership who may be suffering in silence. Join us as we delve into Randi Grunberg's transformative journey from battling fertility challenges to founding The Modern Miracle Foundation, a registered charity dedicated to helping Canadians build families by providing essential grants for IVF fertility treatments.

Discover how Randi, her sister, and their husbands turned their personal challenges into a mission-driven foundation. Together, they've not only established The Modern Miracle Foundation, but Randi and her sister also launched Mini Mod Co., a kids' clothing brand that merges style with social impact, extending their vision of empowerment and change. 

Beyond Randi's personal story, a universal message of empowerment unfolds, challenging women leaders and visionaries to ignite change, one small step at a time. Embark on this journey with us, embrace the mission, and learn how every step forward is a stride towards transformative change.


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Speaker 1:

On the Grit and Grace podcast. We shine the spotlight on the stories behind the leader.

Speaker 2:

So we did a big sign that said infertility sucks. Supporter of Modern Miracle Foundation. And so people come up to us. And what's this all about? We donate proceeds from MiniMod to the foundation and they literally look beside them like she's an IVF baby, or he's an IVF baby, or I struggle with fertility.

Speaker 1:

Wow, I mean to support you. In this episode, we break down the barriers of shame and open up the discussion for women who are suffering in silence. Join me as I speak with Randy Grundberg, who shares her fertility struggles. Alongside her sister and their husbands, she co-founded the Modern Miracle Foundation, a charity that has successfully raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to assist Canadian families in affording IVF treatment. This episode reminds us all that we have the power to ignite change and follow our passions one step at a time. Let's dive in, randy. I'm actually really excited to speak with you today. I am excited to start this journey on the topic of how we can take some personal struggles and really transform them into social change, and I would love to just lay the foundation and give everyone a bit of context for kind of what brought all this on, share a little bit of your backstory and kind of how that sparked change for you as it relates to your foundation and your business.

Speaker 2:

So I was pretty young and I was diagnosed with a medical condition where I knew I wouldn't be able to get pregnant. I think when I was diagnosed with my medical condition, my family is very, very close. I'm very close with my sister. I think she always had in her mind that she would be my surrogate in the future and that was just something she said.

Speaker 2:

Okay, well, this is something you're struggling with. There's no way I'm going to struggle with it. You have your issue. There's no way that it's going to be a problem for me. It's not talked about doctors, don't really. You don't have those conversations with your doctors.

Speaker 2:

But when she was ready to start having her family and start trying, she also struggled and dealt with many years of fertility challenges as well. After a really long journey, they were so beyond grateful that they were able to go through what they needed to be able to welcome their daughter. And we were starting our journey and felt so grateful that we could pursue surrogacy. It is extremely expensive. We were like how do we bring this feeling to other people? How do we give this absolutely incredible gift to others who want a child and don't have the financial means to do so?

Speaker 2:

And so we kind of just had this idea to start a charity. How do we raise some money? Can we help just one family a year be able to achieve their dreams? And that's kind of where it started. Fast forward to today. We opened our grant application exactly a year ago. We've now helped over 10 families so far. We have a few more that are now getting grants in the process right now, which is absolutely incredible. Way more than we envisioned, we've raised a significant amount of money with the help of some amazing donors, and we have some really big plans for this year too.

Speaker 1:

Why do you think there's such shame and stigma around this conversation?

Speaker 2:

I think in society you kind of grow up or you have this vision of what life is supposed to be. You grow up, you get a job, you get married, you have kids and that's kind of just the way society has brought us up to be in this way of life. And you kind of grow up thinking, okay, how do I just prevent myself from?

Speaker 2:

getting pregnant You're never really told like, oh, when you're ready to have kids, it may not actually happen. So you just automatically assume oh, this is just how the woman's body works and it should just work. So there's a lot of shame in that and, I think, guilt that. You know why isn't my body working? Why is everyone else seem to be being able to do this very easily, like what's wrong with me and with that you don't really want to share because you're embarrassed. Things seem to come really easy for other people and you don't really want to share that experience.

Speaker 1:

People who are going through this like what advice do you have for them with how to deal with such a personal struggle?

Speaker 2:

Everyone deals with it very different. You're gonna have some people who I really like talking things out. That's just my personality. I really like to talk about my feelings. And then you have someone, for example, like my sister and she doesn't like to share. She's way more private and there's a lot of people like that. So I think it's about knowing yourself and knowing what you need, and I think a lot of it comes down to, at least personally, and what I see for a lot of other people is Is the support network, whether or not it's your friends, your family is your partner. You have to have a very if you're doing this with a partner, a very strong partner. We have a very open Relationship and open conversation. Yeah, which is where you know people have started online communities or in-person communities, because people need to go and speak to people and get their feelings out, and you also don't feel alone when you start talking about it.

Speaker 1:

Do you feel like this is the conversation that's gonna start hitting the mainstream very shortly, for sure on the rise?

Speaker 2:

I think it's already happening. Yeah, we're seeing it more and more the last couple years. You're seeing more people coming out publicly sharing their story. Yeah, and I think a lot of us talk about this is going to be the next big topic that's shared and talked about.

Speaker 1:

For sure you're balancing financial pressures, family planning and then professional ambitions, and this is like a tricky nuance For those who aren't so close to it. What challenges aren't so obvious that are important to vocalize here?

Speaker 2:

There's a lot of things that happen behind the scenes for those who are struggling with fertility. So, for example, you know you might be working with a colleague who maybe they're late to meetings in the morning or maybe they're not responsive in the morning, or, you know, maybe there you can tell that they're struggling with something. I think what people don't realize for those going through fertility struggles is you know you're at the clinic Three, four, five days a week, multiple times per week You're going before work, so you're trying to get there from the clinic opens because you're trying to get back to your office or back home for meetings. Yeah, physically you're probably you can be on a lot of hormones, things like that but mentally it also impacts you as well with the different hormones that you're on, so you may be more emotional. You're feeling. You're not feeling great, your body's not feeling great, so that all has such a huge impact.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you have no idea what someone is struggling with in their personal life Could be anxiety, could be mental health issues, could be relationship issues, and Infertility is just one of those things. I think that's where it just becomes so important to be empathetic, and when it comes to being a leader or a colleague or a friend. You know, sometimes, you know, friends don't want to come and hang out at different events, say, there's baby showers, there's things like that, and it's not that they don't want to be there for you, it's that they're actually really struggling themselves, and then there's a lot of guilt that comes with that.

Speaker 1:

Well, let's just start with where businesses are making changes, because I am seeing some policy changes. But what are you noticing within the professional landscape of providing families more support?

Speaker 2:

I think the main thing is around benefits. Yeah, you're starting to see a lot more companies introducing fertility benefits. Yeah, whether it's egg freezing, basically an amount to use towards IVF or fertility treatments, things like that. And I would say the financial burden out of all of this is probably one of the biggest things, because so much of the fertility is out of your control. But now you're struggling with the physical and mental side of fertility struggles on top of this massive financial burden. So you're running to the clinic, you're late for meetings, you're paying thousands of dollars out of pocket. It adds up to beef.

Speaker 1:

So how much does it cost, though, randy? Like I have no idea, and I'm learning through your journey here, how much are we actually talking about?

Speaker 2:

So for an IVF cycle it could be upwards of $20,000. For one cycle.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and what's the probability that one cycle actually works?

Speaker 2:

There's so many factors that go into it, so I think it really depends on the situation, but very, very expensive. I think now when you're coming to surrogacy they say like to budget somewhere of upwards, to say $80,000.

Speaker 1:

Wow.

Speaker 2:

It's a ton of money and you can't just come up with that money out of nowhere, right?

Speaker 1:

So if there's anything people could kind of implement in their life who might be feeling all of the kind of, you know, the emotional roller coaster related to this like, what advice can we impart?

Speaker 2:

I think a big thing comes back to your support network. So, finding people that you trust, that you want to talk to, outlets whether or not it's, you know, going to therapy, talking to friends, family member I think that's, that's a really big part of it. Work is such a big part of your life and so I think if you don't feel supported at work, you need to have those conversations, Having a boss or a mentor at the office who can advocate for you. You know, do you need to move around your meetings, you know, as opposed to causing a lot more stress, I mean and stress is a huge part of the whole fertility journey too, right? Stress?

Speaker 1:

has such an impact on your body.

Speaker 2:

So if you need to move around meetings, have those conversations and make sure that they're supportive of it, and I think that's that's a big part of it. You know you have to move meetings, you need to take some days off. Do you need to reduce some workload? Have the conversations of how does that impact my career.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I really wanted to talk with you and have this conversation because as much as we can talk about leadership in the professional sense, like we are whole people going to work, and these are the things that are in the back of our minds every day. As you kind of thought about your own leadership journey, starting this foundation, what have you learned the most about yourself through this process?

Speaker 2:

I like to think I'm an empathetic person. I think this has made me even more empathetic, and not just for those struggling with fertility, I think it's. You know, you get an email from someone, and maybe it's a cold email or a mean email, could be from a customer or a client. You start to realize, okay, you actually have no idea what that person is going through.

Speaker 1:

What has been some of the more surprising insights or lessons that you've learned? Starting a foundation.

Speaker 2:

We're so grateful that we could afford the means to be able to go through the treatments that we needed. There are so many people who can't. Yes, how do we bring this incredible gift to other people? How do we help alleviate that financial burden so that they feel like they can achieve that? And how do we help other people achieve their dreams of having their own family? Because really it's crazy to think about the financial reason should not be or reason why someone can't start a family. You know you're diagnosed with medical conditions. There's things that are out of your control and you didn't choose the path right, so we believe that that shouldn't prevent you from having the family that you want to achieve.

Speaker 1:

So the Modern Miracle Foundation, how does it all work for those who might be curious to know more about it or how they can participate in the foundation?

Speaker 2:

Yes, so we have an amazing board that we lean on for a lot of advice and support and we have our medical advisory team too. So we have an application process. We receive grant applicants, our team internally will review them. It goes through to our medical advisors who help us look at the medical information. We're not medical doctors, so we need external experts helping us review it. Then, once we kind of evaluate all the different applications, see how many applicants we have at the time, how much available funding we have, then we can decide and figure out.

Speaker 1:

You know how can we allocate as much money as we can and how does your business play into this and share with everyone listening a little bit more about? On top of all of this, you've decided to launch a business, which I love. This is like. These are the conversations that make me very excited. But how has that process been for you kind of being of now a business owner?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So I think we laugh about it Is that, on top of you know, children and our full-time jobs and the charity we just wanted to add to our plate Because why not? But I think it all kind of started with when my niece was born. My sister was trying to find some cool kids' clothes that were you know, not cheesy, kind of fun clothes that she wanted to wear herself that came in kids' sizes, and so we were kind of talking about it. She had this idea. She loves being creative and has that kind of spark behind her and she was on mat leave at the time. So she was like, okay, you know what, I'm going to look into this and see what I can do here. And so she started looking into manufacturers, trying to figure out, coming up with designs, coming up with some kids' clothes ideas, and then we kind of decided to start in it together. We thought you know what? It's a really fun, fun way to use creativity.

Speaker 2:

Then we also figured you know, there's so many kids' clothing brands out there. Yeah, how do we differentiate ours? Yes, and then we had the charities. We're like it's kind of a no-brainer If let's use the clothing brand which is called Mini-Mod, why don't we use Mini-Mod in order to then now bring more money into the charity? So now you can, you know, sell cool kids' clothes, help make babies it kind of like goes a little bit hand in hand, and so on. It also brings a great mission to the clothing brand, Entrepreneurship and social change as a combination.

Speaker 1:

Has that? Have the customers responded well to it, Like what's been your experience with this leading with venture for social impact?

Speaker 2:

I would say the social aspect of Mini-Mod is really what drives, I would say, most of our sales. So, for example, we started off going to a lot of pop-up shops or markets selling our selling the kids' clothes, and so we did a big sign that said infertility sucks. And it said supporter of Modern Miracle Foundation. And we figured, you know what, from a marketing side, you need to bring the customers in. What's kind of like something really like bold to try and bring them in. And so people come up to us and be like so what's this all about? Infertility sucks. I see your sign, what's this all about? And we said, oh, like we started a charity. We help those who can't afford fertility treatments. We donate proceeds from Mini-Mod to the foundation and they literally look beside them like she's an IVF baby or he's an IVF baby or I struggle with fertility. I need to support you, mary-d.

Speaker 1:

I'm so inspired Like. The theme in this whole thing is how do you take personal struggle and turn it into passion, and turn it into purpose? This is just a remarkable way that you've done. You do this for everything, though. Like you know, this is how you've structured your life. When you I think about resilience to do that, though, is there anything that comes to mind about how you think about resilience and the resolve to do that?

Speaker 2:

I think people just handle things differently In terms of being resilient. I think it's. I really do try to find the positive in everything. I do think everything happens for a reason and I think that's just the way I operate. And I think I do just try to find the positive in these situations and say, okay, you know, this was the card I was dealt. Now what can I do in order to, you know, help other people with it? I love helping others. I think I've always been that type of personality when, you know, can I find some positive in this and how do I turn this into a bigger impact? I think I've always wanted to do something bigger in life, never really knew what that was, and this was just my way of.

Speaker 1:

You feel like you're living it now. Like do you? Feel like that thing that was inside of you, Like I feel like there's something bigger. Do you feel like you're living it now?

Speaker 2:

I feel like I'm living it and I feel like there's even so much more. There's so much more to be done across I mean for fertility. It's providing the financial grants is one thing, it's advocacy, it's making change, it's actually being a part of that change so that you know, maybe this, maybe the financial aspect of it, doesn't become an issue for people in the future. I think that's like one piece of it. Can you even go like above that and can you try and you know work with the medical field and trying to do preemptive testing for other people's situations who are diagnosed later could have been caught earlier? So I think we just have so many goals with Modern Miracle. Right now it's focusing on the financial aspect, but how do you, how do we make this even bigger? Yeah, and how do we do more?

Speaker 1:

And can you tease out anything? You say you have big goals for 2024. Any specifics? Like I heard a rumbling of a gala, yes, what are kind of some things people can watch and support?

Speaker 2:

So we have a big partnership that launched with the new fertility clinic that's opening in Toronto. They on top of coming out with, you know, world-class equipment and an absolute beautiful clinic to really focus on the patient experience, yeah, and we will be having a gala in May.

Speaker 1:

So it will be amazing. We'll put all of your website links in the show notes too, so people can see them.

Speaker 2:

And I think also if you have financial means to make some donations, they go a very long way and if anyone wants to support the kids clothing line where do they go?

Speaker 1:

So shopminimodcom, Okay, You'll find kids clothing on there that you can shop gifting for your own kids, nieces friends, the last topic I wanted to kind of just talk about is advice for aspiring women leaders, Any advice you can give folks to just if they are feeling kind of a passion to create a business for social change. What are some tips that people could take away?

Speaker 2:

So lean into your network. I think that was a big thing for us. I struggle asking for help, and that's a big thing. I've had to really learn and people do love to help, and especially when they feel that the cause resonates with them. And so lean into your network, I think. Find something you're passionate about and you can even start small.

Speaker 2:

I think it doesn't. I mean, our goal was starting with just helping one family and I think that's where it's more relatable. We're not setting out I mean, hopefully we become this this amazing, incredible, massive charity, but really our goal was just start really small and just helping that one family achieve their dreams. And so I think, don't underestimate your dreams. Even if you have something small, I think, go for it and lean into your network and lean into support people to help you along the way and give it a shot. The worst that can happen it doesn't, it doesn't work out, it doesn't go as planned. At least you can say you gave it a try and you're going to learn so much along the way for it, so don't let it hold you back.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for all of the amazing work that you do in the world, the lives that you are changing. I think this is a really important year for elevating this conversation and I'm so grateful that we were able to have it together.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much and thanks for letting me come and talk about it and bring some awareness to such an important topic.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for joining us. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn, where we transform the wisdom from our podcast into practical tips, tools and takeaways for your leadership journey. Find us at gritgracepodcast. See you next week.