By: Follow South Jersey Staff
GLASSBORO, N.J. — Colleen Kendrick, a senior lecturer of Marketing and Business Information Systems within the Rohrer College of Business at Rowan University not only founded her own company — Kendrick & Company — but has recently started her own podcast for busy mothers who aspire to become their own boss.
A former healthcare executive, Kendrick opened her Mullica Hill based marketing company in 2016, in order to have more earning flexibility while raising her family and getting her doctoral degree.
“My story is like so many of the people I interview,” Kendrick says. “Seventy percent of women who start their own businesses do it to get more flexibility in their lives. Eighty percent of them are already moms.”
Hosting each weekly episode, Kendrick’s tone is upbeat, supportive and encouraging, an amalgam of “can do,” and “you can do!”
“I’m Dr. Colleen Kendrick,” she says in her intro, “a business-building, family-balancing, ambitious lady just like you, and I’m thrilled you’re here… We’re telling the stories of the everymom executive.”
Interviewees have included Marcie Shoham, an ex-military officer, entrepreneur, business-to-business expert and mother of five who runs filtration company Midwest Air Filter, Inc., Catherine Ashton of Giant Squid Group, a social impact consulting agency, and baker Alexis Ofchinick of Amici Mullica Hill.
Kendrick, who hosts on average one 30-minute podcast per week (shows that are produced and edited by Ryan Bussell, a May Rowan graduate with a degree in radio, television and film), said there’s no shortage of inspiring “mompreneurs” to interview.
Her emphasis, she says, always lies near the intersection of following one’s passion, having a life and, hopefully, turning a profit. Which isn’t to say that running one’s own business requires any fewer hours than the job one wants to leave, because it often takes more.
“For many moms who are entrepreneurs, it is about not being locked into traditional corporate hours (and) achieving flexibility to work their business around other priorities,” Kendrick says.
The challenge, she says, is realizing that there are limits on how much time anyone has but encouraging listeners who want to give their own business a go.
“It’s always a challenge of capacity. There are just 24 hours in a day, and no one is getting an extra hour,” she says.
Bussell, who also works part-time at the FM radio stations NJ 101.5 and 94.5 WPST, said despite the competition from other media like on-demand TV and satellite radio, he believes traditional radio and, especially, podcasting, are here to stay.
“Podcasting and radio will always be relevant,” he says, “but not everyone can, or wants to, listen live. People want to hear stories when they’re on the go.”
Listeners can find The Mom Shuffle either on Kendrick’s web site, TheMomShuffle.com, or any of the major streaming platforms: Apple, Google, Audible, Amazon Music, Spotify, Stitcher and iHeart Radio.
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