Colleen has been featured in various television, print and online media – including The TODAY Show — for her accomplishments in building a successful brand while raising a family. She has been a member of Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence, was named a Make Mine a Million $ Business award winner in 2011, a Lifetime Moms and Spark & Hustle award winner in 2012 and won a Sam’s Club and SCORE’s Small Business Award as well. She has been featured by the Female Entrepreneur Association and named a Daring Doer by Tory Johnson. Her company and its products were featured on Good Morning America and The TODAY Show, FOX Business and People.com. Colleen completed the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program and has been on the PA Conference for Women Social Media Street Team since 2012.

Colleen guided Baby Be Hip through four e-commerce implementations and has been an aggressive user of social media and networking to build and market her brand. She understands how to start a business with little money and grow it with a lot of hard work, hustle and grit.

Colleen is an experienced speaker covering relevant topics, such as small business, customer service as a differentiator and entrepreneurship. She is passionate about empowering others by conveying the principles that have fueled her success, and takes an active role in mentoring young women and other small business owners. She speaks on resilience, work/life balance and managing the mental and physical loads of work and home. She also speaks about her experiences raising a child with significant special needs and educating others about differences, respect and tolerance. She is always up for a speaking engagement.

Colleen lives in Horsham, Pennsylvania with her husband Brad and their four children, whom she considers her greatest accomplishment.

After graduating from Villanova University in 1994 with a degree in Marketing, I moved to Manhattan to build a career as a reinsurance underwriter for General Re. I met and married my next-door neighbor (remember the TV show Friends?), Brad, and life has been exciting ever since.

Molly – my inspiration for starting the business

I decided not to go back to the corporate world after the birth of my first daughter, Molly, and wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. After about 6-9 months of that, I got a little antsy to do something more. I’ve always had lots of energy and I remember feeling not quite fulfilled, but I didn’t want to go back to my corporate job and I was unsure what to do. I carved out $5,000 and debated whether to invest it in the stock market or use it to start a company, and since I grew up in an entrepreneurial family where there was lots of hard work, hustle and happiness I realized I had a burning desire to build something. Soon thereafter Baby Be Hip was born.

When I started Baby Be Hip in 2002 as an online retailer, I built it for someone like me…a busy mom who wanted to send a great gift but hated shopping at the mall. At the time, online businesses were almost non-existent, but I knew I didn’t want to be tied to a brick-and-mortar store and online shopping was something I’d want for me. I was a pioneer in the e-commerce space and most people had no idea what online ordering was when I started. Wow—times have changed, right?

Over the 17 years I owned that company, it outgrew my basement and several locations and multiple e-commerce sites before I sold it. The business started as a “nights and naps” type of business but became something more as my life allowed it.

Core team at BBH for years

You see, my motherhood journey has been challenging and it definitely effected the trajectory of my business. For example, we were in a growth push in 2005 when I was pregnant with my third child and I was ready to go big. I felt I had this motherhood thing and business figured out (ha!). My first two children were 4 and 2 at the time and I felt I could juggle it okay, and I was ready to grow the business now. At that point, we had just moved the business to a new location, bought a $40,000 machine, launched another new e-commerce website, and invested in an online marketing company and ad budget, so we were ready to scale. But then my daughter Ellie was born with significant special needs and my life changed dramatically over night. I went from being a very strong, independent businesswoman and a confident mom to wondering how I was going to manage my day-to-day life. My daughter’s first five years were really hard as we were in and out of the hospital all the time. She had so many surgeries (heart and hips and so many minor ones too). She also didn’t sleep for much of her first nine years; we joked she had the “no sleep gene.” It was hard but I learned so many things because of her and she truly made me a better (and a lot wearier) person.

I learned the importance of sharing your truth, the value in hiring good employees for my business who will act and execute as though I was there even when I couldn’t be there. I learned resilience, I learned to rely on very little sleep, I learned to rely on my faith, I learned that I can get through anything, I learned that I loved having an online business because I could still communicate with my customers from the hospital and still run my business without needing to be fully present at the facility. I learned the importance of having a village and a good team at home and at work. I learned the importance of keeping myself strong so that I could be strong for my children and my family. I learned the importance of self-care for me (it took me a while to get it, but I did). I learned after 9-10 years that Ellie wasn’t going to “get better” and that this was our new reality… I couldn’t keep putting my life on hold for when she “got better” or “someday.” There are so many lessons learned that I could go on and on.

I also knew I wanted more children. I didn’t know if it was the “right” decision but I never wanted to resent my Ellie for stopping my dream of a larger family. We took a big leap of faith and went for baby #4, and it truly was one of the best decisions of my life. Delaney came along in 2010 and gave me renewed energy and vitality. She infused my business with new life because I was back in the happy baby world and that got me motivated to grow the business again. Fortunately, I always had great help at my company so the business was able to continue to operate well with an excellent reputation. I always had my head in the business and kept in touch with my customers but I honestly had lost my passion for it when Ellie was sick. Delaney, my youngest, transformed me, my family, my business and I started to “go for it” again! I began putting myself out there, working on my business, networking, learning, growing and I kept getting happier and happier and my business was growing again. It is amazing how happiness affects all aspects of your life.

I found I leaned on so much personal development work as an entrepreneur and also because of my daughter, Ellie. I knew I had to have a positive mindset and had to figure out how to run a business and a family now with four children, including a daughter with significant needs. Ellie is a lot of work. She is a teenager now, but has never said a word in her life, is essentially non-ambulatory (still learning to walk independently), still wears diapers and effectively needs help with all her needs, but she is a great big love whose favorite thing is clapping hands and snuggling. She is a true warrior. A funny thing started to happen after a while; I was being asked to share my story more and more and learned that I loved sharing and helping others with all I have learned over the years as a businesswoman and a mom with lots of highs and lows. I loved having interns at the company so they could see how a small business works, I started hosting events for other women in business and doing more mentoring and speaking. I launched my podcast, Be Bold, Be Brave, Be YOU! in 2016 with the premise that we can create the life we want even when things aren’t easy, but that it takes courage to make it happen. I love interviewing and learning from my guests and I believe my podcast has helped me make some big changes in my life.

In January of 2019, I undertook a six-month intense meditation practice (for me). Imagine me sitting still and quiet twice a day. But it is amazing what happens when you practice mindfulness, meditation and manifestation. One day I said to my husband (and number one supporter) that I think it is time for me to move on from Baby Be Hip. He was shocked—and frankly everyone was shocked—but not me. I needed to listen to my heart and my gut. There were so many signs from the universe telling me it was time and I had to listen to them. There were so many things that I felt called to do but my time didn’t allow me to do them all because of my business obligations.

I sold the company in July 2019 and I am enjoying this next chapter of my life and my career. I am enjoying the opportunity to build my next business. I am now back to podcasting regularly, speaking, writing and consulting with small business owners. I look forward to launching an online program and sharing and teaching many lessons I learned the hard way. My goal is to inspire others to create the life they want, even when things aren’t easy. I know we all have some major life challenges, but that should not stop us from living our best life. The number one lesson I learned is that you need to take care of you first in order to be happy and “successful” (whatever that is to you) in all aspects of your life. I learned for sure that life is a rollercoaster ride and I need to be sure to enjoy the highs and hold on through the lows.

And of course, my greatest accomplishments are still my children, who are now 18, 16, 14 and 9. Those little people do grow up and I love that I now have more time to spend with them.

Thanks for reading (if you made it this far). This is the abbreviated version because so much other “stuff” has happened in between the lines but it gives you a better idea of who I am.