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Tag: women in biz

GenXYZ Nominees Thrive: Brook Eddy (2013) — Where is She Now?

Everyone was right when they predicted bright futures for these executives, entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders. Ten-plus years after ColoradoBiz profiled these Top Young Professionals of Colorado, we revisited several to see where their career paths led them and what they are doing now.

Some are with the same companies; others have moved on to different businesses and new roles.

For some, change was inevitable as their companies were acquired or merged with other entities. For still others, the desire to start something new was irresistible. All are continuing to meet and exceed their own career goals and engage with their communities.

The Gen XYZ Awards are open to those who are under 40 and live and work in Colorado.

Brook Eddy

2013: 39, CEO and Founder, Bhakti Chai

2024: CEO and Founder, Bhakti Chai

One thing that Brook Eddy loves as much as she loves chai is writing. The CEO and founder of Boulder-based Bhakti Chai challenged herself to write a book about her life and her company. She accomplished her goal with months to spare.

“I wanted to publish it before I turned 50,” Eddy says. “It was published in August [2023] and in December I turned 50.” The book, “STEEPED: Adventures Of A Tea Entrepreneur,” is a memoir and travelogue. Eddy describes how she started Bhakti Chai out of her home in the foothills near Boulder, and how she was inspired by her travels to India 20 years ago.

“Every other chapter takes place in India,” Eddy says. “It’s where I learned the definition of bhakti, which is devotion.”

Eddy still travels to India often, including a planned trip to the Jaipur Literature Festival in February to promote her book. “It’s not a ‘10 ways to start a company,’” she says. “But there are some nuggets about building a natural food brand.”

In 2006 Eddy started brewing and selling chai to Boulder area cafes. At that time the establishments were not selling organic and spicy chai, and Bhakti Chai found success in getting the cafes to sell the product for a higher price point than other teas. The company grew, and over the next 15 years launched new products ranging from bottled iced chai to chai ice cream.

For a few years the natural food and beverage industry exploded, Eddy says, because investors were pouring money into businesses. Brands focused on growth over profitability. “A lot of these companies, including us, wanted to have more innovation, better top numbers and grow faster,” she says. “That all costs money.”

New product launches such as sparkling tea were challenging for the small business, as Bhakti Chai didn’t have the resources of large brands to launch and market new items.

“In my book I write a lot about that,” Eddy says. “Retailers only give you a six-month window, and it’s hard to build a following when you have something new and you have to educate consumers.”

A few years ago Eddy stepped away from her company and took a sabbatical. She hired a CEO to take over and traveled for two years.

After visiting Morocco, Bali, Brazil, Bolivia and, of course, India again, she came back to run the company. Then COVID happened, and the business had to streamline and cut costs.

The company transformed from having an in-house tea brewery with 30 employees and tasting events all over the country to four employees and two products, Chai Concentrate Original and Chai Concentrate Unsweetened. These are the two original products that Eddy made in her kitchen years ago. Both have fresh ginger and spices. “It’s still fiery,” she says. “I drink it every day.”

The moves were successful, and today the company is profitable. “We have much better margins,” she says. “It’s been strictly business in the sense of cut costs and be profitable and still make organic fair-trade chai.”

 

Nora Caley is a freelance writer specializing in business and food topics.

GenXYZ Nominees Thrive: Jennifer Chang (2010) — Where is She Now?

Everyone was right when they predicted bright futures for these executives, entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders. Ten-plus years after ColoradoBiz profiled these Top Young Professionals of Colorado, we revisited several to see where their career paths led them and what they are doing now.

Some are with the same companies; others have moved on to different businesses and new roles.

For some, change was inevitable as their companies were acquired or merged with other entities. For still others, the desire to start something new was irresistible. All are continuing to meet and exceed their own career goals and engage with their communities.

The Gen XYZ Awards are open to those who are under 40 and live and work in Colorado.

Jennifer Chang

2010: 29, Federal Account Executive, Global Technology Resources Inc.

2024: Regional Sales Director, U.S. Federal, Cisco Appdynamics

Most people use social media to post fun photos or comment on other people’s posts. When Jennifer Chang was preparing to move from Cisco to another employer a few years ago, she turned to LinkedIn to post a long letter thanking leadership and her team for shaping her into the professional that she had become.

“A coworker made fun of me and said it was ‘War and Peace,’” Chang says. But when she returned to Cisco two years later, her coworkers were thrilled about her return, which she says felt like coming home. “I truly love the people at Cisco. It’s one of the things that makes it so special.”

Chang joined Cisco in 2011, after leaving Global Technology Resources Inc. (GTRI), where she had marketed technology consulting to defense program managers.

At Cisco she started as an individual contributor and was promoted to a leadership role. After a little more than 10 years, she decided she wanted to expand her skill set. An opportunity became available at the web conferencing giant Zoom for Chang to head U.S. state and local government sales. Zoom was founded by a former Cisco employee, and perhaps ironically, has a beautiful office with great snacks and a cool office culture.

Zoom is also a cloud-native company, another feature that was attractive to Chang.

“It was exciting,” she says. “You want to be able to work for a company like that. I felt super grateful for it.”

Later Chang moved to VMware, a company that offers cloud services. Then Broadcom announced its intention to acquire VMware. She sought guidance from one of her mentors, who told her not to let uncertainty of the acquisition dictate her approach to leading her team. “I loved hearing that from him,” she says. “Folks needed reassurance. There was some attrition, but we were able fill those gaps.”

Chang ended up leaving VMware just before the Broadcom acquisition was finalized and re- turned to Cisco. Luckily she had kept the swag she had accumulated over the years, including the Cisco Denver sign that she displays in the background when she participates in Webex by Cisco video conference calls. Also, she has a (faux) furry barbarian helmet that served as the trophy for the Cisco Barbarians Award, a complex competition that involves a system of narratives about teams within the company and employees voting for winners in six worldwide regions.

The win was 2½ years in the making.

“We had to reset expectations, regain trust and talk about solutions rather than products,” Chang explains. “Customers get turned off when you say, ‘I want to sell you this widget.’ Instead, we say, ‘What are your pain points, what are you trying to solve?””

Chang is now the regional sales director for U.S. Federal at Cisco AppDynamics, where she handles government accounts.

In 2014 Chang graduated from Leadership Denver, a program of the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation. The program brings together civic-minded leaders from for-profit, nonprofit, and government entities to come up with solutions for issues facing communities.

Also, Chang served for three years on the executive committee of Minds Matter of Denver, which helps high school students from low-income families get support outside the classroom and build skill sets so they can attend college.

“They start as sophomores and we continue to mentor them in senior year,” she says, “One hundred percent get into college with scholarships. It’s an amazing program.”

In 2020 Chang was named among the Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Denver by the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce. She is also on the board for Visit Denver, the nonprofit trade association responsible for marketing metro Denver as a convention and leisure destination.

 

Nora Caley is a freelance writer specializing in business and food topics.

CEO of the Year 2023: Kerry Siggins 

Some lead by example, others by words. Kerry Siggins, CEO of Durango-based StoneAge Inc., is one of those rare leaders seemingly adept at both: equipped with the perspective of someone who knows what it’s like to hit rock bottom, and with a gift for convincing those around her to reach for their dreams. 

Siggins, a Colorado School of Mines grad, took the helm at StoneAge 14 years ago at age 30. In that time, she’s helped guide the company to consistent sales growth and developments such as the 2020 acquisition of Nevada-based Breadware, an industrial IoT product-development company; and last year’s acquisition of Terydon, an Ohio-based waterjet company that will expand StoneAge’s development and adoption of fully automated robotic solutions. Siggins was StoneAge’s 33rd employee when she was hired as director of operations; the company now employs more than 200.  

Siggins also is the author of  “The Ownership Mindset: A Handbook for Transforming Your Life and Leadership,” which she wrote during the pandemic. Launched in October, the book covers her own transformative journey, from the darkness of substance abuse to recovery, to CEO of a worldwide leader in the manufacturing and design of high-pressure water-blasting tools used in industrial cleaning. 

An ownership mindset is not just a catchphrase for Siggins. It’s what she’s sought to instill at StoneAge, too. Though it offered profit-sharing when she came aboard, the company became 100 percent employee-owned in January this year, capping an eight-year process of buying back shares from existing shareholders that started when the company formed an ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) in 2015. For Siggins, the ESOP is a critical piece of StoneAge’s “own-it” culture. 

READ: Building a Strong ESOP Employee Culture — Five Lessons Learned for Success

“We want people to think and act like owners, where they take responsibility for their work ethic, for their efforts, their attitudes, their teamwork, how they show up every day,” Siggins says. “We want this to be a place where people feel like they can be their very best selves, where they can live their dreams while working. You have to create a culture that says, ‘Hey, we’re all in this together, and we’re going to win together. If we have to tighten our belts, we’re going to do that together, but as the company is successful, we’re going to share in that success with you.’” 

Contrary to its name, StoneAge has been synonymous with innovation since its beginning in 1979. Founders Jerry Zink and John Wolgamott met at Colorado School of Mines in the late 1970s and developed a water-blasting tool that would bore through rock. 

“The rock-drilling equipment we developed in the laboratory at CSM caught the attention of the energy companies that were investing heavily in underground uranium mining in New Mexico and Colorado,” Zink says. “John saw the opportunity to launch into private manufacturing.” 

That opportunity proved fleeting. The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant meltdown in 1979 caused the appeal of nuclear power to dim and the demand for uranium to plummet. 

Zink and Wolgamott pivoted, though, and soon found there was a robust demand for their high-pressure water-blasting equipment in industrial cleaning applications. Today StoneAge holds hundreds of patents and sells its products throughout the world, with more than 100 dealers in about 30 countries. 

Siggins seemed a natural fit for the growing Southwest Colorado company when she applied for a job in late 2006. She grew up in Montrose and after college had been working in Austin, Texas, when she returned to Colorado’s Western Slope. She was hired at StoneAge in 2007 as director of operations at the age of 28. Less than three years later, the company’s board of directors named her CEO. 

Though young for the job, it didn’t hurt that founders Zink and Wolgamott also had backgrounds with the School of Mines, the state’s premier engineering and applied-science university. It also impressed Zink that she’d thrived as a student-athlete, a four-year letter winner and three-year captain on the Mines softball team. 

“Her path through Colorado School of Mines as a woman on an athletic scholarship demonstrated grit,” Zink says. “She listened well and convinced me she was prepared to learn our inventive, small-company, disruptive culture.” 

Siggins considers her mother, Sue Petranek, one of the inspirations that gave her confidence she could succeed in a male-dominated field. A single parent, Petanek raised Siggins and her brother in Montrose, working two or three jobs. When Siggins was 12, her mother returned to college to earn her teaching degree, driving 60 miles from Montrose to Gunnison to attend school while still holding down two jobs. 

Another source of inspiration for Siggins was her grandfather, who relocated from the Midwest to Montrose and bought an army surplus store, which he converted to a sporting goods outlet. At 12, Siggins convinced her grandfather to let her work in the store, and she often tended to celebrities who stopped in to shop for cold-weather gear on their way to tony Telluride. Siggins recalls those encounters as her first inkling of an exciting world out there awaiting discovery. 

StoneAge is on the move, too, from a business-development standpoint, increasingly tech-driven in its product offerings. 

“We will always be manufacturing, but we’re building our own software platform,” Siggins says, citing robotics and software that will enable customers to make better decisions about how they’re cleaning equipment and how they’re training their employees. “That will lead to developing efficiency ratings for the overall hydro-blasting system, which will help our customers with their sustainability goals.” 

Siggins is immersed in many causes, most of them stemming from her desire to share experiences and ideas as a thought leader. She’s a frequent speaker at schools, including her alma mater, and other venues; along with appearances for her book, she maintains a blog and podcast on her website, kerrysiggins.com; she sits on Gov. Jared Polis’ Commission for Employee Ownership; she’s vice president of the Waterjet Technology Association, the industry’s safety organization; and she’s partnered with two former School of Mines softball players to spearhead a fundraising campaign to upgrade the team’s facilities and playing field. 

Siggins also hopes to encourage girls in their formative years to consider STEM careers. StoneAge serves as a welcoming example. 

“Half of the executive team here is female, and we have women in all kinds of positions throughout the company,” she says. “We have women in mechanic positions, we have women in assembly positions, in engineering positions. I think because we’re a women-led company with so many women in leadership positions, it makes it a safe place for women to apply for those types of jobs.” 

As for why women tend to be under-represented in STEM fields, she says, “I think it’s a complex answer. I know many, many women who I think would have made fantastic engineers, but they didn’t believe in themselves in those really formative years of junior high and high school where you would need to start making those decisions to get on that track, because they had self-doubt about their math skills. Then, I think part of it is that it’s tough to make it in a male-dominated industry, right? I recognize that it’s not easy to be in a male-dominated school or a male-dominant industry if you don’t feel like you belong.” But, she says, “The reasons are different for every single person out there.” 

CEOs tend to wear many hats, but Siggins has a clear vision of what her most important role at StoneAge is: “My number one job is to hire the right people on the team and create a culture that attracts the people who are going to help us drive our vision forward, and then inspire them to do their very best work and to be their very best self,” she says. “When people feel inspired, when people are engaged, when people are on fire about what they do, you drive results. So my number one job is to ensure we have a culture that attracts and retains the kind of people who want to be here helping us change the world.” 

 

Mike TaylorMike Taylor is the editor of ColoradoBiz.

Good Company: Nicole Sullivan and Her Indie Book Empire 

Explore the journey of Nicole Sullivan, founder of BookBar Press and owner of The Bookies, as she discusses navigating the complexities of book banning, the intersection of free speech and diversity in the publishing industry, and the evolution of her literary empire.

Nicole Sullivan 

Founder of BookBar Press; owner of The Bookies; founder and president of BookGive

Age: 50 

Hometown: Cape Girardeau, Missouri  

What she’s reading: “The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time,” by Yascha Mounk. Sullivan says she’s been stuck on nonfiction since 2020. 

ColoradoBiz: No use holding back. We’re talking about the book industry, so let’s jump into the juicy topic of book banning. Not only do you own The Bookies in Denver, but in 2020 you launched a publishing house (BookBar Press). Have you felt pressure to keep certain books off your shelves and/or away from the printer?  

Nicole Sullivan: Well, not as many books are being banned as the media will have you believe, but I think it’s good to call attention to the issue. There’s a difference between banning a book and challenging it. Most libraries have a multi-step process for bans. Because of that, most bans occur in schools, not libraries, but even challenges are destructive because it takes time for librarians to respond to challenges. Bookstores and publishers are completely different. We don’t have to adhere to the First Amendment in the same way libraries and schools do. 

CB: And has that shielded your businesses from calls for suppression?  

NS: Not exactly. What’s happening in bookstores is that booksellers are getting more and more progressive, and are refusing to sell some books to customers. Suppression happens at publishing houses, too. Employees at publishing houses have had walkouts because they don’t believe in a book. Sometimes there’s pressure from the outside to cancel publication or rescind a book. You might see restriction on access during the creative process, too, when authors are driven into self- suppression. And then once a book gets to the bookstore, we’re back where we started, with the booksellers as the gatekeepers at the store. It doesn’t matter what political side you’re on. All restricted access is insidious.  

CB: Has taking a stand impacted business? 

 NS: I don’t know. Most of our customers aren’t very aware of what happens behind the scenes in the bookselling industry. But for anyone who is paying attention, I’m guessing we’ve lost some customers. No doubt we’ve gained customers, however, who understand that this fundamental right of free speech ensures we all have greater access to an array of ideas and experiences through books. 

CB: When you bought The Bookies in 2021, you were already entrenched in the local book scene. For almost 10 years you owned and operated BookBar, a beloved bookstore/wine bar on Tennyson Street that closed at the beginning of 2023. Fill us in on this first segment of your career.   

NS: I opened BookBar in 2013, in a space where one of our community bookstores had closed. I saw it as a place for everything from book clubs to children’s story times. That was the vision: a community literary space with food and beverage.  

CB: The food industry can be a tough grind. Do you have a background in F&B?  

NS: I worked in a few restaurants in my 20s. I dabbled, did a bit of everything, and then I had babies and stayed home with my kids for seven years. It wasn’t until they went to school full-time that I started thinking, “OK, now what?” I didn’t set out to open a bookstore, but I’d gone to culinary school, and I’ve always been a big reader, and I got sucked into my idea for a bookstore wine bar.  

CB: If you never intended to open one bookstore, then how’d you end up with two? 

NS: I bought The Bookies in 2021, after the owner (Sue Lubeck, the store’s founder) passed away. The pandemic was winding down; things were pretty stable. The initial thought was that we’d merge all the back-office stuff. On paper it made sense. But the more time I spent at The Bookies, the more I loved the culture Sue built there. The Bookies and BookBar were two different environments run on two different business models.  

CB: Care to elaborate? 

NS: The Bookies is staffed largely by former school librarians and educators, and all the staff have such a passion for literacy and book access. They are doing this work for the same reasons I do it. At the same time, combining a bookstore and wine bar was harder than I’d expected. It was two businesses in one, really. I was about to turn 50, and I was ready to carve out more time for me and my family and reading and travel. It seemed like a natural life progression to let BookBar go. We own the building, and our tenants are opening something else there. I can’t say what it is just yet, but it will be a fresh concept. 

CB: Was it hard walking into someone else’s business? 

NS: Just the opposite, actually. I’ve really enjoyed the process of coming into somebody else’s business and making sense of it, learning, finding ways to be more efficient. There’s more to it than that, though. My identity was really tied up in BookBar, and that was a lot of pressure. It feels good to be working with somebody else’s company. Sue built this incredible culture at the store, and that eased the transition. When I started getting to know the staff, hearing the stories about all the years they’d worked together, I realized we’re truly a family.  

CB: It sounds like you’re saying that building a positive work culture might be one of the more important aspects of running a business.   

NS: Exactly! And that was really all Sue. Coming here, it made it easy to let BookBar go, and I had to let it go.  

CB: The Bookies is in the process of relocating as we speak. Can you tell us more about the move?   

NS: I knew when we purchased The Bookies that we’d be moving. The current store is tucked into a corner of a strip mall, and it has to be a destination. I purchased the Lehrer Fireplace & Patio store on South Holly Street in May of 2023. (The Lehrers still have two locations; they aren’t going out of business, just downsizing.) I’m a big believer in owning your property if you can make it work in any way, shape or form. It’s a smart financial move because then if the business doesn’t work, you’ve still built equity.   

CB: What drew you to the Lehrer building? 

NS: It’s huge, almost 13,000 square feet, and there’s a taekwondo studio on the second floor. We’ll have plenty of space for the retail bookstore on the first floor. We’re not going to downsize, but I want to build in more community spaces with seating, a lounge area and a community event room. The Lehrers left us some fireplaces, so we’ll have two fireplace areas. We’ll have a 2,000-square-foot warehouse in the back of the building that will house the nonprofit BookGive. And our publishing company will also operate out of the warehouse.  

CB: Is it fair to say you’re building a book empire? 

NS: I call it a literary compound. We’ll have people coming in to write their books and publish, and then they’ll sell them at the store. After the books have been read, people can come back and donate them to the nonprofit. It’s this whole ecosystem, actually, and that concept of ecosystems is informing our retail design scheme.  

CB: Getting back to your business, what prompted you to open a publishing company during the pandemic? 

NS: I had a few reasons. I’m interested in learning about the whole industry. I’d learned about the bookselling side, and I wanted to learn more about publishing. We have consignment for self-published authors at The Bookies — it was something I started at BookBar — and some authors come in with books that are clearly unedited. I’m not making any judgment, but I saw an opportunity to help local authors through the publishing process while also publishing content we think is important to get out into the world.  

CB: What does it take to make publishing profitable in the current climate?  

NS: Who knows? I don’t know! We’ve been talking with so many other publishers who have been doing this for a long time, and there’s no easy answer. I don’t know what the path is to profitability. What I do know is that nothing I do is ever for profit, and even publishing is more of a community endeavor. The margins are so thin. The main point is that we’re getting stories out and connecting local authors with readers. 

CB: Has the consolidation of big publishing companies impacted small publishers? 

NS: No, it impacts us more as a bookseller. As the publishing companies continue to consolidate, I think there’s just that much more room for smaller companies to capture the voices that are getting lost. We’ll primarily be focusing on regional middle grade novels. We’ve published three so far, and they’ve done well.  

CB: Why middle grade?  

NS: The big focus at The Bookies has always been education. The store primarily stocks children’s books. We have a growing adult section, but the overall focus of our inventory will be education and environmentalism.  

CB: We’re curious, how is AI impacting the publishing industry?  

NS: I don’t know, honestly. My husband is a tech guy, and he could talk to you for an hour. I kind of have my head in the sand about the whole thing. I don’t know enough about it to be either afraid or excited. My feet are still firmly planted in the traditional printed page world.    

CB: You mentioned earlier a third prong of your literary ecosystem. Can you tell us a little more about BookGive? 

NS: Before I owned my first bookstore, when I was home raising kids, I got together with a group of friends. We created Northwest Denver Community Book Exchange. It was an annual event, and people would bring more books than they’d leave with. We’d end up with a thousand leftover books, so we started building partnerships with organizations that needed books. When I opened BookBar, I brought the program into the store. Then in 2018, we purchased a building and moved the nonprofit into its current headquarters at 4890 Lowell Boulevard. We have about 300 volunteers on the roster who sort books by genre, then match organizations with the specific books they need. We call it curated giving. Since getting our 501(c)(3) status in 2020, we’ve donated over 200,000 books throughout metro Denver. We’re currently expanding our footprint to serve rural communities where books are being banned.  

CB: And we’ve officially come full circle. Best of luck getting The Bookies moved to its new location at 2085 South Holly Street. 

 

Jamie Siebrase is a freelance writer based in Colorado.

Is the She-Cession Over? Not for Many Women in the Workplace

For many working mothers, the pandemic delivered a disproportionate kick in the teeth. Because the most affected industries tended to be those dominated by women, they lost their jobs at record levels in 2020. Despite being only 47 percent of the workforce at the beginning of 2020, women accounted for 54.5 percent of all jobs lost.

With kids home from school and daycare centers closed, even moms who remained employed took on so many extra hours caretaking, it was like having an additional part-time job. This nearly impossible balance led many women to step out of the workforce or avoid stepping back in when jobs began to recover.

READ: Balancing Work and Motherhood — Strategies for Success in a Busy World

Now, in the summer of 2023, the pandemic has receded and employment for women has recovered to levels from before, but there remain problems in the systems that support women’s ability to be in the workforce. What was true before 2020 is even more true today: For moms, life and work often do not work well together.

As a working mother, I can attest to the fact that our institutions are not built for working moms. Consider daycare centers that close by 6 and charge by the minute for lateness. School plays that start at 11 a.m. on Wednesday morning or doctor and dentist appointments that are offered only during work hours. Not enough slots in before- and after-school programs and widely varying start times for different schools. Limited spots and some of the highest costs in the country for summer childcare for school-age kids.

Recently I heard about one mom whose multiple children’s school start times are vastly different; one needs to be dropped off at 7:30, but the other does not start until 9 a.m. This mom was motivated to choose the school that started at 9 a.m. for her special needs child because of the before-school program it offered. But the program was not funded, and the mom was caught in a lurch. While her family needs her to bring in an income, she has not found a flexible employer to accommodate her schedule.

I am a working mom, but I am also a working mom with resources. I am married and was able to split drop-off duties with my husband when we were in the thick of parenting young kids. I recall spending years in a fog of guilt. I remember the relief I felt when, because of concerns about allergies, we were no longer allowed to bring homemade cupcakes to the classroom parties so my store-bought cupcakes were welcomed. The memories of the scramble at the beginning of every school year to find a college student to pick up my kids and help them with homework make me shudder. It rarely worked perfectly, and it was always stressful.

I recall each January, as I looked ahead to the coming summer with dread. Summer break felt like a big black hole that needed to be filled. And I remember the dollars we spent on summer camps or the summer babysitter so we could continue to work.

I was fortunate because I had the flexibility at work to tell everyone I would arrive late each summer morning when the camps did not start until 9 a.m. When I recently saw that the statistics on labor force participation rates (LFPR) for women with kids drop by several percentage points every summer, it was no surprise to me. For some women, working in the summer months is not worth it.

Things are not getting better. The pandemic led to the closure of over 16,000 childcare centers across the country. Today, 51 percent of Colorado is in a childcare desert, with more kids needing care than there are slots.

While the numbers of women back in the workforce tell a strong story of post-pandemic recovery, it is not the full story. These pressures that come from a shortage of affordable childcare affect women in numerous ways. Of all women likely to be employed today, women with a college degree or more are most likely, meaning they probably also have the resources to throw money at their childcare problems. Having children at home, especially young children, depresses employment for prospects for women, particularly when compared to women without children.

READ: Navigating the Post-Pandemic Workplace — Struggles, Solutions and the Return to Office Culture

It is time for us to talk openly about the Motherhood Penalty. In 2023 about 72 percent of women with children at home are working. But the earnings potential for mothers is less than for women without children. Claudia Goldin from Harvard University just won the Nobel Prize in Economics for her work showing that today much of the gender earnings gap arises with the birth of a woman’s first child. And even though women tend to increase their work as their children get older, they are not able to catch back up.

Research supports that hiring managers are less likely to hire women with kids and when they do, they offer lower salaries. While there is no hard data to prove this, women with children at home are perceived as being less committed to their jobs. These statistics are ironic given that it is well documented that women around the world reinvest up to 90 percent of their incomes back into their families, compared with men who invest 30-40 percent.

Because the children of today are the community leaders of tomorrow, a village approach to raising children feels as though it would set us all up for success. Universal Preschool, which just rolled out this fall, is a good start but only guarantees part-time care without having to pay for full days. Colorado’s Childcare Assistance Program (CCCAP) could be expanded to broader income levels to help make childcare more affordable.

Childcare centers, with whom we entrust our most precious family members, need help to support these low-margin businesses — possibly through help with rent in underutilized real estate so more of the fees can provide better pay for notoriously underpaid childcare workers.

While licensed childcare centers may not be able to meet all the needs in our communities, support for family, friends and neighbors who provide care could make a big difference in helping families feel more supported with their childcare needs.

Today I have two teenagers and can feel the pressures I felt as a mother with young children receding. However, I work with and manage women with small kids and I try to ensure I am understanding and accommodating, never assuming my coworkers are any less committed because they have young children. Instead, I remember the future of our community is in the hands of the children they are raising.

 

Tamra Ryan headshotTamra Ryan is the Common Sense Institute Coors Economic Mobility Fellow and CEO of the Women’s Bean Project, a social enterprise providing transitional employment in its food manufacturing business to women attempting to break the cycle of chronic unemployment and poverty

Good Company: Mary Nguyen and the Olive & Finch Collective  

Discover the journey of Mary Nguyen, the Executive Chef and Owner of Olive & Finch, as she shares her path from finance to the culinary world. Get insights into her experiences, challenges, and the evolution of Denver’s dining scene in this exclusive interview.

Hometown: Denver 

What she’s reading: Mary’s reading two books right now — “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius, which dives into Aurelius’ principles in “a modern but still profound way,” Nguyen says, and “The 5 Love Languages of Children: The Secret to Loving Children Effectively.” “I try to read as much as I can to learn how to be a better parent,” she says 

Mary Nguyen

Executive Chef and Owner of Olive & Finch, Little Finch and Finch on the Fly 

Denver, CO

ColoradoBiz: You’re a difficult person to track down, Mary.   

Mary Nguyen: That’s not always the case, but I’ve been traveling this summer. We’re in France for five weeks, then Switzerland.  

CB: Is this business or pleasure? 

MN: It always has something to do with food. We’re celebrating my husband’s 50th. He’s European, and his dad lives in France, so we wanted to have our girls come out with us, but at the same time I’m doing market research on my end, looking at things I can bring to the Denver restaurant space.   

CB: That’s exciting news for any locals familiar with your restaurant concepts, Olive & Finch and Little Finch. But before we dive into your brand, tell us a little more about how you got into the industry.    

MN: I’m the daughter of immigrants. My parents came here at the fall of Saigon, and they came to Denver because that’s where our sponsors were. It’s been a long time, but back then coming to the U.S. was really different when you came from Vietnam. American families could sponsor Vietnamese families to help them assimilate. 

CB: That was further back than expected, but now you’ve piqued our interest. What was it like being raised in Denver by first-generation immigrants?

MN: It helped me stand out in a world of conformity and emphasized the importance of family, connectivity and hard work. My parents taught me to deeply appreciate all the opportunities that I’ve been given. And they instilled in me a work ethic to set goals and then strive to achieve them through perseverance, patience — and maybe a little luck, too. 

CB: So, you’re one of those rare Colorado natives? 

MN: That’s right! I was born and raised in Colorado. I went to school at George Washington High School and CU-Boulder.   

CB: Does CU Boulder have its own culinary program?  

MN: Actually, I’m not trained as a chef. I didn’t go to culinary school. My degree is in economics and international affairs. After college I went straight into investment banking, doing public finance, trading commodities. But I always really loved cooking. One day I decided I was more interested in cooking and recipe development. I left finance and got as many kitchen jobs as I possibly could. I literally had no experience, and I needed to learn as much as possible.  

CB: What kind of jobs are we talking about?  

MN: I applied at Starbucks because I knew I wanted to open a café, and they had a great training program. I woke up every morning at 3 a.m. to take the morning shift. Then I’d head over to Hapa Sushi Grill — this was when they first opened in Cherry Creek, in the early 2000s — to work the lunch shift. I really loved sushi and was offered a job as an apprentice sushi chef.  

CB: That sounds like an exhausting day.  

MN: I’m not finished. I also worked at a restaurant called the Beehive in the evenings. I remember eating in their open kitchen, with this beautiful, red brick, having fruit and nuts in my salads. That was almost revolutionary back then. 

CB: When’d you find the time to go back to culinary school?  

MN: I didn’t. I’m 100 percent self-taught.   

CB: But your restaurants are so polished and well-executed. How’s that possible?  

MN: I didn’t even start cooking until I was in college. My parents cooked when I was younger. My mom is an amazing Vietnamese cook, and she’d experiment with American food in her kitchen. I think I was always in an environment where food was important. As an adult, I found myself having dinner parties, being in the kitchen, loving it. When I decided to quit my finance job, I was young. I thought it would be easy. I don’t know if I’d do that now, but at 25 I was living in the moment. 

CB: OK, don’t take this the wrong way, but how’d you land any restaurant jobs with absolutely no experience? 

MN: That’s a fair question. I remember seeing an ad in Westword: There was an opening at the Beehive for a sous chef, and I showed up in my three-piece suit, with no idea what a sous chef was. I wanted to cook and was willing to do anything. The owner turned me down, obviously, but she also realized I wanted to learn. A few months later, I got a call. They had a position in the pantry. In the back of my mind, I thought, “Wow, she’s offering me an opportunity to put groceries away.” I had no idea what a pantry cook was. Now that I understand the dynamics and hierarchy of a kitchen, I can only imagine what the owner thought of me.  

CB: It’s the early 2000s, and you’re working three jobs. How long did this grind continue? 

MN: I worked all three jobs for over a year, then I worked at Hapa a while longer, moving up the ranks to become a sushi chef.  

CB: That was — what? — nearly 20 years ago? How has the Denver dining scene changed?  

MN: I think back to 2005, when I opened my first restaurant, Parallel Seventeen, and there just weren’t a lot of options in Denver. It was either very fine dining that you paid an arm and leg for, or your neighborhood pizza or burger place, or a Chinese restaurant. I’d travel to Europe with my husband and see all these great cafés, places where you could go in for something quick, and I wanted to deliver a similar experience in Denver, where people had great food without the commitment in time, diet and money. P17 stood out as a nice restaurant that morphed into a bar at night, doing Vietnamese and French cuisine. In 2013, when I opened the first Olive & Finch location, I remember talking to my PR team, and nobody understood what I was trying to do. The idea was for counter service, but we’d roast our own chickens, bake fresh bread daily. Ten years later, there were lots of places just like it, offering affordable, chef-made food in a casual setting. But at the time we opened? It was really different.   

CB: You opened the second Olive & Finch location in Cherry Creek in 2017, and both spots are still very popular, even after the pandemic. Is it because you’re serving real food? 

MN: That’s one reason. Everything is made from scratch, and you can taste it. But also, our restaurants are easy and convenient.   

CB: Is it the same with your newest concepts, Little Finch and Finch on the Fly? 

MN: Before Little Finch, we opened a wholesale operation in 2019, selling pastries and grab-and-go items to other restaurants and businesses in the area. Then Little Finch opened in February of 2023 as a very casual all-day café focused on beverages and grab-and-go items. Finch on the Fly is a healthy, quick option at Denver International Airport.  

CB: You’ve added a lot to the Olive & Finch brand in just a few years. Have you thought about tapping into the home-cook market, too, which has been on the rise since the pandemic?   

MN: No, but years ago, when I had a restaurant called Street Kitchen, I’d close during weekend days and teach cooking classes, turning the dining room into a little cooking school. If we did that today, we’d sell out.  

CB: It’s hard to talk about the restaurant industry without bringing up COVID-19. How’d you make it through, and were there any takeaways that surprised you? 

MN: It was just as hard for us as it was for everybody else. Our pivot wasn’t as challenging, though, because we had already had a strong to-go business. We were very lucky in that regard. Our business is just so fickle, and we learned that it’s going to be important for us to remain dynamic and flexible if we want to stand the test of time. 

CB: Did the pandemic change consumer dining trends? 

MN: People are so much more curious and educated about food now, and I think the typical dining consumer is more discerning. They know what they want, and they don’t want to be disappointed.   

CB: What does that observation mean for you as a restaurant owner? And has inflation impacted the acumen of dining consumers?   

MN: The problem is that our cost of goods has gone up, but the consumer mentality hasn’t shifted. While our labor is higher, and our product costs more, we’re required to stay within a certain price point. It was always important to me to make great food accessible, and that’s still the case, but the margins have narrowed, more so for us because we’re committed to affordability. Plus, we provide benefits to our team, and we pay more than at a typical restaurant.    

CB: What’s the message for other Denver-area chefs? Should they quit their day job if opening a restaurant is their dream? 

MN: I think if it is your passion — absolutely — you have to go for it. But for those who think opening their own restaurant is a dream, first go stage with another restaurant owner. Once you open a business, everything changes. I don’t do as much cooking anymore because I’m involved in day-to-day aspects of business. That said, I get so much joy seeing a full dining room, seeing staff learn and grow in their careers, just like I did. 

 

Jamie Siebrase is a freelance writer based in Colorado.

Cooking Up Success with ‘Sticky Fingers’: Erin Fletter’s Inspiring Journey as a Mompreneur

With three young kids at home, a traditional 9-to-5 wasn’t in the cards for Erin Fletter — and yet being a mom hadn’t smothered her desire to work. In 2011, at her kitchen table, Fletcher and her dad, Joe Hall, co-founded Sticky Fingers Cooking, a culinary school offering enrichment cooking classes for kids.  

READ: Balancing Work and Motherhood — Strategies for Success in a Busy World

Fletter and her husband, Ryan, co-own Barolo Grill Restaurant in Cherry Creek, so a food-related pivot wasn’t totally unforeseen. “It was a typical entrepreneur story,” Fletter says, thinking back to the organization’s inception. “I went to about a hundred schools, and 97 said, ‘What are you talking about?’” But three Denver area schools gave Sticky Fingers a chance. “That snowballed into 30 schools, then 300 and 1,000,” Fletter says.  

The concept is simple: Chef-instructors lead small-group cooking classes centered around a plant-forward weekly recipe. Food is used as a jumping-off point for exploring new cultures. Students might learn about Mongolia, for example, while chopping bell peppers for fried rice. They’ll also study a featured ingredient — usually a vegetable, fruit or grain — and they might pick up some math, science and reading while honing their culinary skills.  

READ: Plant-based Protein is Taking Root in Colorado’s Food Economy

Business boomed. “We’ve always had a 99 percent retention rate,” Fletter notes. Then in March 2020, everything shut down. “The 1,000 schools we’re in closed; it was scary,” says Fletter. But the Sticky Fingers leadership team bound together, integrating Zoom into the organization’s proprietary software to launch online cooking classes.  

When inflation sparked a resurgence in home cooking, CEO Fletter and her team capitalized on that, too, reaching a younger generation through their TikTok and YouTube channels. Fletter started writing cookbooks, too, and Penguin Random House will release the fifth in a series, “Kid Smoothies: A Healthy Kids’ Cookbook,” this October. 

“That’s how we made lemonade out of lemons during Covid-19,” Fletter says. But there sure were a lot of lemons. “Women were so disproportionately impacted,” Fletter continues, noting that many women haven’t re-entered the workforce after stepping out to care for children and/or aging parents.  

READ: Surviving Food Inflation — How Colorado Restaurants Adapt to Rising Costs and Labor Challenges

Sticky Fingers is 90 percent women-led, and Fletter is passionate about bolstering female business owners. It’s this resolve that led her to explore a franchise model. “What’s great about franchising is that it’s a symbiotic relationship: Our success is their success, and vice versa,” she says. Since initiating a franchise brand in late 2022, Sticky Fingers has opened three territories in two states (Texas and Illinois). The company has retained its company-run headquarters in Denver and Boulder. “We’re in the game as well, running our cooking classes side-by-side with franchisees,” Fletter says. 

 

Jamie Siebrase is a freelance writer based in Colorado.

Financial Independence for Single Women: Trends and Strategies for Long-term Wealth

It is hard to imagine that in 1974 women were just being given the opportunity to have a credit card in their own name and secure a mortgage without a male co-signer. Fast forward 50 years and women have made huge financial strides. For example, single women now make up 17% of all homebuyers, compared to single men at just 9%, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). In addition, women are poised to inherit a large share of the $30 trillion that will be passed down from baby boomers, according to Investopedia. 

As financial considerations and options continue to shift and evolve, being mindful of personal priorities, goals and choices is paramount to success. Knowing where you are, where you want to be and what it will take to make it there requires focus and intentionality. Consider these strategies to ensure you’re set up for financial success now and in the future. 

READ: Becoming a Stay-at-Home Parent — Navigating the Pros, Cons and Financial Implications

Financial considerations for the single woman 

There is an abundance of financial advice and best practices for the traditional family. However, there are specific nuances to keep in mind if you fall outside this category. Establishing a plan based on personal goals and needs is essential in ensuring you are using your wealth to its full extent. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

  • Identify your financial priorities. Whether you want to travel, buy a home, continue your education or are ready to retire, making a list of your short- and long-term goals and aspirations will help ensure you can achieve them.
  • Establish a financial plan. Determine your current budget and any disposable income. Make sure you are tracking your current income and spending. Monitor your savings to make sure you have an adequate amount of emergency savings as well as an appropriate plan for any long-term savings goals. Carefully evaluate any current or future debt and how it will affect your overall cash flow.
  • Address important financial commitments. Outside of your personal finances, plan for other potential financial commitments like caring for elder parents or family members, or upcoming major purchases.

READ: Securing Your Financial Future — Key Considerations and Questions for a Solid Plan

Create financial security with multiple income streams

According to the Pew Research Center, women have surpassed men and now account for more than half of the college-educated labor force in the U.S. Despite the increase in women attending and graduating from college, there is still a significant gender gap in pay that has remained relatively stable over the past 20 years. In 2022, women earned an average of 82% of what men earned, according to a Pew Research Center analysis. 

For these reasons, women may choose to have multiple streams of income to create financial security. Additional income doesn’t just mean a second job — it can come in many forms, including rental properties and passive income like investing in the stock market. If you choose to have multiple streams of income, it’s important to work with a financial advisor to ensure your financial plan encompasses these activities, and you are set up for success when tax season comes around. 

Saving for retirement should be a priority

Regardless of your age or marital status, saving for retirement should still be a priority. In the U.S., the average life expectancy of women is 79, which is six years more than men. For these reasons, saving for retirement is even more important to ensure you have a plan to live out your golden years in comfort. 

READ: What Does the Secure 2.0 Act Mean for Retirement Planning?

Here are a few steps to consider when starting a retirement savings strategy: 

  • Determine your unique needs. A common standard for post-retirement income is 70% of the annual salary you made while in the workforce. The average retirement lasts about 20 years, so you should plan to fund at least two decades of post-work life. 
  • Review your options. There are a variety of retirement plans to choose from that may provide tax benefits including:
  • Set your goals and begin saving. Start the habit of contributing a small amount from each paycheck. Using an automatic payment, like a direct deposit into your account, helps you establish regularity and enables you to consistently save. 

Being financially independent is something to be proud of, and should be protected so you can fully maximize and enjoy what you have earned. Working with a financial advisor and understanding how you can best plan and save to support your goals will help ensure you are achieving that throughout your life. 

 

Gattis KimAs a financial planner, Kim Gattis is responsible for creating dynamic plans for individuals, families and business owners. As part of the wealth team, she helps clients identify their life priorities, and assists them with formulating a plan to meet their specific needs while helping them find direction and meaning through the process of wealth accumulation, preservation and transfer. Kim joined UMB Private Wealth Management in 2009. 

Women to Watch 2023 — Bank of America

Everywhere in Colorado, women are leading our business communities to new levels of success. They each have a unique story that has shaped our state through economic, social and enterprising contributions. Yet, at times, these women go unnoticed. ColoradoBiz is here to change that.

With 50% of our global workforce women, Bank of America values differences — in background, experience or viewpoints, including socioeconomic status, race, national origin, religion, age, gender, gender identification and expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disabilities and veteran status. By connecting to our diverse backgrounds and perspectives, we can better meet the needs of our colleagues, clients and communities, including right here in Colorado.

We are investing in women through the Bank of America Access to Capital Directory for Women Entrepreneurs, a first-of-its-kind platform that educates women-owned businesses in the U.S. on funding opportunities. We also help women business owners through the Bank of America Marketplace, an online public marketplace and directory with 100+ women entrepreneurs to provide market opportunities.

We look forward to further expanding our presence in Colorado and helping communities across Colorado thrive.

 

This is sponsored content.

How Kieding is Creating Flexible and Collaborative Workspaces for the Modern Era

Since 1974, Kieding interior architecture and design has consulted on, planned and designed more than 12,000 projects in the Denver area and in 26 states, with projects ranging in size from 500 to 500,000 square feet. The firm specializes in corporate office planning and interior design consulting services largely for office spaces but also for some light industrial, retail and small medical offices. 

Though the company is named for founder Warren Kieding, the firm today is 100% woman-owned by architect Tia Jenkins and designers Katie Winter and Kim Hoff. After 10 years at the company, Jenkins bought the firm from Kieding in 2007. Hoff and Winter became co-owners two years ago. 

Just as workers were forced to be flexible and businesses to pivot during the COVID-19 pandemic, designers of business spaces focused on flexibility to create spaces for the new paradigms in work. 

READ: Creating a Home Office — Optimizing Audio Stimulation and Sound Quality for Productivity

“The office is now competing with the comforts of home,” Winter says. “What makes it feel good is that it feels more like a hospitality space, like a restaurant or hotel feels like. Amenities are key to that. Your space is inviting with a great break area where you can chat with your co-workers.”  

More appealing common spaces and multi-purpose kitchens are overtaking bland coffee break areas and utilitarian lunchrooms. Cubicles are on the outs, but shared workstations with standup desk options and lockers to store personal items are trending, Winter says. 

“Collaborative spaces must feature a variety of seating types and environments,” Hoff adds. “Workspaces continue to incorporate right-sized smaller private offices. These offices feature larger glass sidelights for better natural light to the interior.” 

READ: TARRA — A New Way for Women to Work

Private offices are still important but have shrunk as more people work a hybrid schedule with more time from home. Instead of grand reception areas and huge conference rooms, businesses are spending money on technology and smaller huddle rooms that can double as Zoom rooms. 

When many businesses slowed down during the pandemic, the team at Kieding stayed busy redesigning office spaces as businesses continued to morph operations and schedules. In some cases, building owners saw the opportunity of fewer people in office buildings to remodel common corridors and restrooms, Winter says. 

At Kieding, the design process starts with a computerized “test fit” using Revit software to make sure the new tenant’s needs will be a good fit for the building space. During the pandemic’s supply chain disruptions, Kieding designers worked to choose the top three options of products to make sure projects stayed on schedule.  

“A lot of clients are building owners who build out for tenants coming into the building who want to be moved in as quickly as possible,” Winter says. “We can get a space plan done in days, not weeks. We know the pace of tenant finish work, and we know when we get a request, time is really important to them.” 

Jenkins, a licensed architect for 40 years, says as the work environment has changed to more hybrid schedules, employee training has become more of a challenge. 

READ: 5 Tips for Building a Strong Company Culture in a Hybrid Work Environment

“The biggest challenge we have is maintaining the critical mentorship and training specific to our employees within a hybrid work environment between home and office,” Jenkins says. “It is much harder to teach employees how to ‘read’ clients and communicate effectively in the computer environment than it is at a real face-to-face meeting.” 

When Kieding and its team moved into a new space in September 2021 on South Monaco Parkway, they gutted and redesigned their space to exemplify the comfortable, flexible workspaces they also design for clients. 

“We definitely went the route of ‘work everywhere,’ and collaboration is why people come to the office,” says Winter, who has been with the firm for 22 years. “We have four areas where people could meet together. We have those numerous spots for two to four people working together on a project.” 

Like their clients who want flexibility in workspaces and schedules, the 15 employees at Kieding usually spend one day a week working from home. 

 

Suzie C. Romig is a freelance journalist who has lived in Colorado since 1991. Her byline has appeared in newspapers and magazines across the state on topics ranging from small businesses to raising children to energy efficiency. She can be reached at [email protected]