Meet Allison Schneider, COO and Co-Founder of the mama’ hood in Denver, Colorado. Allison, Amanda Ogden, and Linda Appel Lipsius founded the mama’hood to create a community for new moms and families where they can address all their pre and post-natal needs. This inclusive space offers yoga, retail, group meets, and classes that are available on a sliding scale for accessibility and welcomes families of all types.
“So much of this [the pandemic] did come down to women. Women had to leave their careers at a much higher percentage than men did during this to be home and support the children. It’s natural, ‘of course, the kids need me and that’s what I have to do.’” — Allison Schneider
Get to know more about Allison and the mama’hood in this week’s Business Spotlight Q&A.
The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
What’s your favorite part about the neighborhood or community your business is in?
I love that it’s walkable. I love that mamas can join us and walk up the street and have pizza or coffee or whatever — they don’t really have to move our cars. People in our neighborhood are very generous and very concerned about locally-owned businesses. They consciously come to us when they could easily get it off of Amazon.
Why is it important to you to #SpendLikeItMatters?
We only buy local. Full stop. We’ve always said that we shop locally because we’re both small, local business owners, my husband and I. Over Christmas, I realized how much convenience I used to count on with Target, Amazon, and everything else. I will personally source out locally-owned restaurants and businesses — a lot of times you can walk in and the business owner is there. It makes a huge difference, and it’s made a huge difference in my life professionally and personally.
As a business owner, what’s the craziest or strangest thing you’ve ever tried?
We never thought we’d be able to transcribe how we teach and what we teach, because it’s so personal and high-touch, to a digital world. But crazily, that’s what we’re doing, and crazily we’re making it work. This is the craziest it’s been and these are the craziest things we’ve done.
