Building Bridges Between Moms

PROVO, Utah – Oct 09, 2020 – Since graduating from the BYU Marriott School of Business in 2011, entrepreneurship alum Stephanie Schindler has driven through the streets of Manhattan, worked at a startup company in California, and recorded a podcast on the different ways that women balance motherhood and career. While her life has changed constantly since graduation, Schindler uses some of the creative problem-solving skills that she learned in the entrepreneurship program to tackle the challenges of every day. 

When Schindler came to BYU, she looked for a field of study that would allow flexibility in a career and the home life she desired. “I wanted to be a mom someday, so it was important to me that I put myself in a position where I could be in control of my future career,” she says. “I had a goal to build a home business, and entrepreneurship was the obvious path for me to reach that goal.”

Upon entering BYU Marriott’s entrepreneurship program, Schindler endeavored to learn as much as she possibly could. “Once I started the entrepreneurship program, everything was so interesting to me. I would even read my textbooks for fun before a semester started, and I loved the knowledge that I was acquiring,” she says.

Schindler’s hard work in school paid off as she used her business knowledge in her professional endeavors after graduation. She worked for multiple procurement startup companies working on a number of tasks such as online marketing. The opportunity to work from home with one of these companies was a blessing as she moved around the country with her family.

As Schindler and her family moved to new places, she learned how to adapt to change. “My husband and I got married, and we started in Texas, then we went to Colorado for a summer, and then we moved to Pennsylvania. After that, we moved to New York, then California, and we live in Montreal now. We had a baby during that time too,” she says. “I’m proud that together we successfully navigated an ever-changing situation.”

After moving to California, Schindler stepped back from her full-time job to spend more time with her daughter. As she adapted to new locations and her new role as a mother, she had an idea to create a podcast. The premise of the podcast was to help mothers share their stories and advice with each other. While Schindler lived in California, she was inspired by the many different examples of motherhood that she saw around her, and she wanted to share the stories of women like these to a larger audience.

“I met incredible women who were highly educated and from all over the world, and each of them had come up with their own unique approach to motherhood and career,” says Schindler. With those experiences in mind, Schindler decided to create The Mom Spectrum, bringing her idea for a podcast where women share their experiences and philosophy on motherhood to fruition.

Beyond only sharing parenting stories and advice, Schindler also hopes to build bridges between working moms and stay-at-home moms through the podcast. “I find that there's still a little bit of a stigma between working moms and stay-at-home moms, and I hope to build more understanding between moms who have different approaches to parenting and careers.”

Through her work with The Mom Spectrum, Schindler has learned from each woman’s experiences and philosophy on motherhood. “As I’ve talked to these women that I respect greatly, I’ve learned that there are so many unique approaches to career and family,” she says. “There is not one ‘correct’ way to look at those important decisions.” With her second baby on the way and a life that doesn’t show any sign of slowing down, Schindler plans to continue shaping her own unique approach to motherhood and her career.