Finding Work That Fits Your Life as a Mom with Mary Kay Ziniewicz of Bus Stop Mamas

Hey there, welcome back. No problem parents. I'm your host Jackie Finneman and today's episode is one that every busy mama out there will want to hear. Did you know that over 50% of moms in the US report that balancing work and family life is their top stressor? If you've ever felt like you had to choose between being there for your kids and pursuing your career or your passion, well today's episode is for you.

I am talking with Mary Kay Zinowitz, a powerhouse mom and entrepreneur who spent over 25 years building award-winning programs in law firms. Now she's taken that expertise and created Bus Stop Mamas, a workforce platform that connects moms with flexible job opportunities designed to fit into their busy lives. Mary Kay introduces us to her concept on the different stages of motherhood, the car seat mom, the bus seat mom, the driver seat mom, and beyond, and explains how her tech platform is helping moms at every stage re-enter the workforce. This episode is a twofer. It is going to help moms who are looking to re-enter the workforce, but also businesses who want to hire those stay-at-home moms. Stay-at-home moms are some of the most highly skilled performers at work. Mary Kay is going to share her story, which includes her husband being the same home dad for the first 10 years of their daughter's life and how standing at the bus stop with other moms gave Mary Kay her idea for Bus Stop Mamas. Hey there, parents. Thanks for listening to the No Problem Parenting Podcast. Are you ready to become the confident leader your kids crave you to be? Are you losing your crap on your kids, yelling, giving in, and exhausted at the end of every day? You can start building confidence in your parenting immediately, whether your child is a toddler or all grown up and still living in your house. Don't make this parenting gig harder

than it needs to be. Register to become a No Problem Parent. It comes with an app so you can listen to the tips and tools just like you're listening to this podcast. Click the link in the show notes or go to NoProblemParents.com. Become a No Problem Parent today.

Hey, Mary Kay, thanks so much for being with me today. Welcome to the show. Thanks. Great to be here.

Let's start by telling our listeners why you had a heart for creating this company and this resource, especially for moms, in particular for moms. But it really kind of came from the struggles your husband had as a stay-at-home dad, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so people are often surprised when I share that I was not the stay-at-home in our family situation, but my husband was the stay-at-home parent in our family. And like many people who stay at home, my husband was sad. He was, our daughter was 10 years old. He was with for 10 years as a stay-at-home parent. Did an excellent job, by the way, way better than I would have done in many ways. He was a great, great, great stay-at-home dad. But after 10 years,

and even before then, you know, he was feeling different. You know, the pressures of being at home are hard on people. You know, we're multidimensional people. He was feeling like he wanted to be around adults, wanted to exercise his other talents, and importantly, wanted to contribute to our household income. So he went back to work. And at the age of 10, I started standing out at the bus stop with my daughter. And I brought my business in-house. And prior to bus stop mamas, as you mentioned, I had a consulting practice working with law firms around the country.

Prior to that, I worked as a chief marketing officer for law firms. So I brought my consulting practice in house, literally. And then I got to stand out at the bus stop with my 10-year-old daughter and all the other moms in the neighborhood, all of whom were waving to their kiddos as they took off on the bus. And then they would turn to each other, mugs in hand, and ask, what are you doing today? And I felt their same sadness at the bus stop. And I thought, oh my gosh, there are so many things these moms can be doing. And many of them had attempted to go back to work to no avail, got quick rejections or no rejection at all. And these are, you know, highly skilled, experienced women who couldn't find jobs, many times jobs that were well beneath their skill set. And they thought they'd never get back in. And their self-esteem suffered.

And I thought, I've got to change this because I know the people who I work with, if they had an opportunity to meet you, they would hire in a minute. The problem was they never got to meet her. So that's what I went about fixing with Bus Stop Moms. We have moms with PhDs, GEDs and none, and everything in between. So first I'd like to share because we have perceptions of moms, of stay-at-home moms, who they are, what they want, what they're capable of. And that really plays into how we're serving mom is she's everyone. And I'm often surprised when I hear perceptions of who she is. So how we're changing it is number one, I've talked to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of moms. We have over 25,000 moms in our network. And we started with one. So I've talked to a lot in the beginning. I spoke with every mom that entered our network,

which is free, by the way, and to enter it and always free for moms. But how we are helping employers understand how to design work, which we call jobs, we say jobs built for mom life. and the time is now really for all the women listening, all the moms listening to your show, all the parents listening to your show. This is a critical moment.

There has never been so many women who are needed in the workforce. You are needed. So we've got some additional playing ground here of we're needed by the employers. Employers know they need us.

And they want us. They need us for many reasons, but they also want us. So what Bus Stop Mamas does is we help employers understand how to keep her employed. And the way we do this is not by telling anybody what to do, but gentle nudges.

But we talk about our mama segments to help employers understand how to design work that fits within the life cycle of our children. So we have three plus mama segments. Car seat mamas, so moms with newborns and they're still crating their kids around in a car seat. They haven't started school yet. Bus seat mamas, those are the moms that get their kids on and off the bus, the ones I was talking to at the bus stop.

Driver seat mamas, those are moms whose kids are driving. Their time has opened up a little bit more and beyond. So I'm a beyond mama. My daughter graduated from high school and I have only one child and now she is off to college. So my time has freed up in many ways. So car seat, bus seat, driver's seat and beyond. As we look at each one of those times of life in parenting, designing work that fits within that life cycle of our children. So in those early years when you don't know what's going on and you're trying to keep your baby alive and wondering from day to day what's going to happen. Maybe you have five to 10 hours a week that you want to do something.

Maybe in the house, maybe out of the house, depending on what your situation is, depending on what you do, depending on the time of day that you want to work. Because I talk to moms all the time that say, you know, I just want to find work when my husband's sleeping. We can do that. We can do that. So there's the car seat mamas, bus seat mamas. We call our bus seat mamas the nine to three movement because those moms want to get their kids on and off the bus. That's the most critical to them. We simplify that for employers by saying nine to three movement, give them jobs that work within that time period. And that might flex, you know, because start times and times are all different, but basically the hours to get your kid on and off the bus. Then the driver seat mamas,

they have more freedom that said oftentimes many times our kids are in sports and we're still leaving work to get to our kids to watch them whatever so three o'clock is always a good time in that time period to end the day or after hours and then beyond so we're free as a bird right we have we've launched the children and now it's like we have to find something to do not only how to, if you're a two-parent home, how to reunite with your spouse and figure out how to coexist again, which is the two of you. But also, you know, it's time to fulfill your passions. And that may be work, that may be a volunteer, that may be entrepreneurship, it may be all the things.

But you, Bus Stop Mamas, really meets the needs of anyone. And so I think one of the questions is, you know, how does that look for employers and moms? Let's describe your website page a little bit because you have the section for moms looking for work that fits whether they're a car seat, bus seat, or driver's seat or beyond mama. And then you have the portal or the site for employers to actually post jobs that they have available, whether those are temporary, part-time, full-time, in person or remote? Yeah, so we're a two-channel business. So we're constantly building our network of mamas ongoing, and we're constantly building our outreach to employers. We work with about 800 employers right now, employers as large as Boston Scientific and as small as a two-person and shop. All different types of industries come to us. And so far, both of those channels have been built organically all through word of mouth, which has been super thrilling, but we want to grow faster. So the way our platform works is employers sign up and they pay to post job. And then those jobs go out to our moms in our network. Again, it's free for moms to join our network and it's free for moms throughout the entire process. Those jobs go out to our moms once a week on Tuesday in a newsletter, email newsletter. So, hey mamas, here are our jobs for the week. And then moms are in the control seat. They're in the driver's seat through this whole

process. Moms review the jobs. They decide if they have an interest. They decide if they have the skill set. They decide if the schedule meets theirs. And if they decide to click on that job, they just click on that job, introduce me. And as soon as they click introduce me, they get a warning. Hey, are you sure? Because we're just about to introduce you now through an email introduction. So Jackie meets Susie, just like you've done probably already once or twice today.

When you introduce a friend to a friend or business colleague to a business colleague, that's how we do it. Jackie meets Susie. Here's a little bit about Jackie and no problem parenting. And here's a little bit about Susie, just like a friend would do. And then we're out of it.

We guarantee moms you will get through. We will make sure that you meet the decision maker. No more tossing you aside. We are going to make sure you get through to the decision maker.

And we promise the employers you are going to meet talent that is eager to work, that has experience, and that really wants to meet you and have a shot at this job. and employers are really eager to meet you. And that's what I like to share with the moms all the time. You are needed, you are needed and employers are eager to meet you.

So yeah, so that's how it works. I love it. So businesses, this is a great way for you to know that when you're posting a position and you're getting candidates, these candidates are intentional. They are curious, they are interested.

They wanna learn more about you and your company And it's not just I'm applying randomly or I maybe want a job. I mean, they're a little bit more intentional when they're on this site. Yes, I really want to find something. And here's the hours that I'm willing to work.

And how employers know that is because you have a form that the mama fills out. Yep. But the mom lets them know. We don't share any mom information with them other than the introduction.

So the email introduction is all we share a little bit, you know, here and there, information they give us. But that's up to the mom to express her interest and why she wants to work with the company. And it's up to the employer to reach out to her. So we have a code of conduct that there's no ghosting.

We ask that moms don't ghost employers and employers don't ghost mamas. and for the most part, people abide by that code of conduct. Every once in a while, people drop the ball for good reasons, but for the most part, people are well-behaved on our site and treat each other with respect. Importantly, employers know they're reaching mom. So oftentimes, as I mentioned, I've talked to a lot of moms. Moms will say that the interviewing process can be intimidating. They will say that they're afraid to share that they're a parent, that they have other responsibilities, and they're afraid that being a mom is going to be used against them in the interviewing process. And we know that it is occasionally. If an employer knows,

oh you're pregnant that makes it very difficult in fact I've had many women call me and that share with me I'm eight months pregnant I just lost my job and I can't look for work no I'll get back to that because that is a very you know being a mom is very gender specific and that is another part of what bus stop mamas does is we support her and we shine the light on her significance which is super important super important to what we're doing because you matter you matter well and i think this is so great the fact that the employers that are using your site to post their positions means they are well aware that you're a mom. You can relax when you're in the interview. They want you. You know, they've already discussed internally that, hey, we want a mom for this job. Hey, moms make excellent employees. Hey, we need more women under our roof. So they've already determined they want you. So remove any of those fears because they want you.

Yeah, absolutely. We've had so many moms give us testimonies of, thanks for removing that for us. Thank you for removing that fear of sharing I'm a mom in an interview. Yeah, I was going to ask you too, what are you hearing from moms and employers?

What kind of feedback are you getting? Oh, this is what keeps us going is the wonderful feedback. So employers can't believe the level of professionalism and experience from the moms that they are interviewing. Compared to any other site like Indeed or LinkedIn, they're meeting moms from us who they can't make a decision oftentimes. They'll sometimes hire two people instead of one because they can't make up their mind. The hard part on the employer is they don't want to tell that they aren't going to hire her. So that's the hardest thing because they're forced with meeting these moms and then they can't make up their decision. But we have very happy employers who write to us all the time that they save money, they meet exceptional people,

their business is flourishing because of this hire, the hire stays. So years, we started in 2019, we've watched moms progress in their careers to executive leadership positions, from starting in very part time to now being a part of the executive team. We've seen that time and time again. So that is awesome. Retention is higher than any other platform for employers hiring bus stop mamas. So that's all their benefits. Moms, of course, they appreciate not being afraid that they're moms in the interview process. Moms are getting through. They're getting jobs quickly. They're adding to their household income.

they're finding work that fits within their kids' programs, and they never thought that was possible. They never thought that was possible. It's happening now. That's so great. So many benefits. In fact, you keep the statistics posted on your website.

You say that 96% of your moms appreciate the manager introduction. So you're constantly looking to see if this is working and how well this is working. You have a 70% overall hire rate, 98% higher, like hiring rate for remote and hybrid jobs, 85% a year or more retention, and 83% of your customers are repeat customers. So it's really cool because mama might be looking for a temporary job or a part-time job for a period of time.

And then her kids grow, she may be coming back to bus stops to say, okay, now I'm looking for full-time work. Yeah. Or many times she just stays in that same, with that same employer and her work progresses. We've learned that there are two ways of working.

You know, we learned that there are the women who go to work and there are the women who stay at home with their children. Bus Stop Mamas fits right in the middle there. We know that so many women do not want somebody else watching their children. We know this because I've personally spoken with moms, moms with special needs children, moms who learn that their kids are special needs at different points throughout their kids' development. Sometimes it's right out of the gate they are aware of it. Sometimes it's later on in their development. And special needs are not.

Our children need us in different ways. And moms don't all want somebody else to watch their children. It's been a static statistic for the last 45 years that 43% of women exit their career after their first child is born. That number goes up. We know even women who can't afford child care don't necessarily want child care. We also know that employers are trying to offer new benefits because the word on the street is, oh, everybody wants and needs childcare and then they'll work.

And the truth is otherwise. Everybody doesn't want or need childcare. They want to be there for their children. And Bus Stop Mamas allows for everything.

It allows her to work a schedule, to keep that part of her brain and life going around and earn some income if she wants to and when she wants to and when it's time within that life cycle of her children, which she identifies, hey, I've got some extra hours I would love to earn some income. We're changing. We're changing that perception of her value and how she works. We call it the 21st century business model that's built for her too.

So having work that fits within the life cycle of your children is really changing the world. We don't need child care in the abundance that we believe we need. Even if we could get it, there aren't enough suppliers to do it. There aren't enough people to provide that.

So Bus Stop Mama's offsets that need allows parents to be parents and also work. And you're right. Not every parent wants their child in child care. They want a flexible work schedule, but also even when they have to work because of income and that need, child care is so expensive.

It's hard to find. I work with different daycare providers and school programs, after-school care programs and things, and sometimes it's just not a good fit for your child to be with that many other kids. And it's overstimulating, and then problems can start to happen where they otherwise wouldn't have. So again, whether it's special needs or it's just your child who's not used to all that chaos or they're tired at the end of their school day and the after-school care is just too much for them, Bus Stop Mamas really helps parents figure out ways, mamas figure out ways to find jobs that will work for them so they still can get that income when it is necessary for them to have the income and or when they want to.

So I just think you guys have done such a great job with this. It's a brilliant idea. And it's a fun, safe platform to pursue your career as a mama. So yeah, I love everything about it.

I'm going to continue to sing your praises. Thank you. We are celebrating mom. Society does not exist without us.

A village does not get created without mom. Because without you, there is no village. I'm just really grateful for you taking time to share this resource with my listeners on the podcast today. I encourage everyone to head on over to encourage moms who are kind of on the fence about whether or not they want to get back into work or what is out there, what's available for them, what are the possibilities.

Even if you're not quite ready yet, head on over to busstopmamas.com and check them out. it's free to sign up so you can even just kind of begin that process now and become part of their network and thanks again so much mary k for being on the show today oh thanks for having me definitely share this episode it's so easy whatever podcast app you're listening to right now it is so easy to just hit that little share button and shoot a text over to your friend or share it on social media with your mama friends i'm sharing it thanks for having me jackie all right that's it for today's episode, be sure to check out the links and the show notes to learn how you can connect with Mary Kay and bus stop mamas. You can get our 60 ways to respond to your kids without losing your cool, the make it right technique. We have our everyday essentials ebook, and there's a seven day free trial for new calm, get better sleep with new calm. Be sure to use coupon code,

no problem for 15% off all products. Get started now on becoming the confident leader. Your kids crave you to be. That's it for today. Hugs and high fives, parents. You got this.